Best Of Archives - Cover Me

The 25 Best Weezer Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 12:00 pm No Responses »

Aug 312026

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

Earlier this month, Weezer released their seventh self-titled album (20th overall). Like all the other self-titled albums, it’s known colloquially by the color on the cover—in this case, Gold. By late-era Weezer standards, reviews are pretty good, but, as showcased in a viral Saturday Night Live sketch a few years back, for many people the first two albums are all that matter.

Is that true for covers? Mostly. Over half of the covers on our list tackle songs from The Blue Album and Pinkerton. The rest are spread among subsequent hits (“Island in the Sun,” “Keep Fishin’”) and a few late-period deep cuts. It probably says something that there are more covers of Blue Album outtakes on this list than there are from like 10 of their albums combined. Though, lest it be said we didn’t dig deep enough, Make Believe, Van Weezer, and even Raditude are all represented.

So dive into the best Weezer covers while you ponder that immortal question: What’s with these homies dissin’ my girl?

25. Mac DeMarco — Undone – The Sweater Song

Before they perform “Undone” on AV Undercover, Mac DeMarco explains they learned it in the car on the drive over. It shows. But such sloppiness is part of Mac DeMarco’s charm. He barely knows the lyrics, and the band constantly sounds like they might fall apart, but that loose energy carries a wildly ramshackle performance. At the end he shrugs as he says to the camera, “That works.” — Ray Padgett

24. Deftones — El Scorcho

Rivers Cuomo got his start in a high school metal band called Avant Garde, so it’s not a surprise that the strains of metal were a key component to the Weezer sound. The Deftones certainly recognized the mashup of metal with alternative – in fact, that was where they reveled. So it makes sense that they would see “El Scorcho” as simpatico with their sound. You can hear them standing on the brake pedal in this recording, working hard to keep the song at its deliberate pace, and that tension serves the cover immeasurably. — Patrick Robbins

23. Jordan D. White — I Need Some Of That

What started as a bombastic, electric guitar-shredding original paying homage to Van Halen becomes a more “fun in the sun” tune here, fitting in with the summertime rewind that the song kicks off with. This ukulele cover is lively, picking up the pace a bit compared to the original. White nails the “need” in “I need some of that,” which is no small feat. Be prepared for this chipper tune to get stuck in your head. — Sara Stoudt

22. Whiskey Shivers — Buddy Holly

Whiskey Shivers plays the kind of music that people get in line to try and name the genre. “Thrashgrass” is the band’s preferred nomenclature; “apocalyptic Americana” and “gutterbilly” have also come up. “This group of 20-somethings plays banjos, fiddles and washboards at breakneck speeds,” wrote the Washington Post, “while singing high, lonesome harmonies about love and video games.” All to say that you may think you know how their take on “Buddy Holly” will sound, but they throw enough curveballs to keep things fun and fresh. — Patrick Robbins

21. Emmy The Great & Tim Wheeler — Island In The Sun (acoustic)

Emmy the Great (with her partner at the time, Ash’s Tim Wheeler) included an acoustic version of “Island in the Sun” on their collaboration This Is Christmas. That’s not an AI hallucination: they honestly made a Christmas album that includes Weezer’s classic song of summer. The cover is a rarity, having only been released as a bonus track on a Japanese edition.

Another worthwhile version is Emmy the Great (who goes by Emma-Lee Moss these days) performing the song on a tour of England in 2011. This performance has some weight to it, as the bassist on the original Weezer recording, Mikey Welsh, had died earlier that day, a suspected drug overdose. Emmy announces the news, takes a breath, and plunges in. Emmy and her band play it in straight-ahead fashion except at the end; they close out the song with an a cappella treatment of the final iteration of the song’s last line: “We’ll never feel bad any more.” A moving moment. — Tom McDonald

The Best Cover Songs of June & July 2026

Posted by Ray Padgett at 9:00 am 1 Response »

Aug 032026

Alexis Taylor & Mike Simonetti — I See a Darkness (Bonnie “Prince” Billy cover)

Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip released an amazing electropop cover of “Wild Horses” earlier this year, and now he’s back with a similar take on Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s most-covered song. He writes, of the mesmerizing music video, “I saw the room that we see in the film — the scene, the two men facing each other and getting closer in their armchairs as the intensity of what they sing to each other increases. I saw the lady at the centre and back of the same space, illuminated by lamp light for the choruses, and the red balloon hovering over the 4 people in the scene. I wanted this to be like a televised Samuel Beckett play, and to be surreal, simple, and emotionally direct.”

Bandit Voyage — Hotel California (The Eagles cover)

<a href="https://banditvoyage.bandcamp.com/album/daddy-core">DADDY CORE by Bandit Voyage</a>
It’s hard to do a fresh version of “Hotel California,” but Swiss duo Bandit Voyage pull it off on their new EP. They ditch many of the theatrics, stripping it down to sound more like a DIY indie-rock song. It’s The Eagles if they played a basement show. Eventually a hyper-distorted guitar does come in to play the closing solo, but even that feels done with a bit of a wink. Continue reading »

The 40 Best Doors Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 10:00 am 3 Responses »

Jul 312026

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

This month marks the 55th anniversary of the death of Jim Morrison, the front man for the Doors. His importance in rock history, then as now, is a matter of debate – and there has been a lot of debate. Just this spring, BBC Music Magazine named the Doors the most overrated band in history, calling them “the ‘starter’ band for teenagers that one is supposed to outgrow.” Journalist Jimmy Guterman claimed that “Jimbo was a stillborn doggereler and an overwrought singer [and] his cohorts sounded like a group on loan from the local Econ-o-Lodge cocktail room.” Another critic called them “…yet another example of why one should always avoid people with messianic delusions.” And comedian Moshe Kasher says that “part of the process of becoming an adult is admitting to yourself that the Doors were a shitty band.”

But for every basher who makes merry of Morrison’s pretentious-shaman-in-leather-pants pose and calls his bandmates’ competence into question, you’ll find two who’ll defend them, in even more full-throated form than Morrison himself. The Sunset Boulevard Records label made an excellent post soon after the BBC put the Doors at number one:

The Doors have long occupied a strange position in rock history—too theatrical for purists, too serious for casual fans, and too iconic to ignore…. If anything, the renewed debate proves a simple point: truly irrelevant bands don’t inspire arguments nearly six decades after their debut. The Doors remain a lightning rod because they sit at the intersection of music, myth, and culture. Strip away Morrison’s legend, and you still have a band that redefined how rock could sound and feel. Embrace the legend, and you have one of the most enduring icons in popular music history. Either way, “overrated” might say less about The Doors—and more about the impossible standard we set for bands that refuse to fade quietly into the past.

Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, and John Densmore have spent the last sixty years not fading away. They may be polarizing to the world, but the four of them were unifying to each other. They created a sound based in blues, jazz, and flamenco, and their songs continue to bring attention on their own merits. We’ve found forty covers that demonstrate the worthiness of what the Doors brought to the world. They won’t end any debates – in fact, we expect them to start a few more in the comments section – but they’ll prove that the Doors and their music continue to be not just relevant, but as vivid, compelling, and preternatural as when they first arrived.

— Patrick Robbins
Features Editor

The 10 Best Sting Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 12:00 pm No Responses »

Jun 292026

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

Last week, we ranked the 30 Best Police Covers. We debated at the time whether to group Sting solo songs into that list. Ultimately, we decided that Sting’s solo songs are just too different—more mellow, more adult-contemporary, and, most importantly, missing two essential ingredients that made The Police The Police. So, today, a bonus list rounding up ten killer covers of songs from Sting’s post-Police career. Continue reading »

The 30 Best Police Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 2:26 pm 3 Responses »

Jun 262026

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

Conceived and delivered during a time of band strife, Synchronicity was nevertheless the biggest record (and cassette) in the world in 1983, and was the fourth consecutive #1 album for The Police. Every band who formed in the ‘80s, and many subsequently, knew their music. Already on rotation on the radio, The Police also timed their run well to coincide with the launch of MTV, and they and their publicity team were keen to harness the power of that medium. When a new musical format emerged (a regular occurrence in the ‘80s) re-releases of The Police would be top of the list as guaranteed sellers, generating more listens. The back catalogue is quite compact, but it hums with complex, sophisticated music that speaks to many.

That breadth of interest means that the world of Police covers is particularly rich. Reggae and dub artists, keen to repay and mark the favor that The Police did for them in publicizing their craft, were grateful and expressed themselves in their genre. Sting recorded phonetic vocals for some tracks in Spanish and Japanese, and there are great covers in those languages as a thank you. Indie god Juliana Hatfield was the perfect age to be a Police completist as she dreamed of a career in music, and repaid that love with a whole tribute album. There is a great goth and emo covers album, and not all of it is covers of “King of Pain” and “So Lonely.” Punks can see themselves in the ramshackle start of the band. Genre tribute albums have to incorporate The Police, with a greater or lesser level of success.

Musicians who have a different taste in music, but similar in nasal stimulants, can be difficult to keep together. Especially when one of them keeps 80% of the writing royalties to himself, not allowing his talented bandmates to record more than one of their own songs per blockbuster album. Synchronicity was the last studio album the band made. The other great thing about ubiquity, though, is that you can find copies, in multiple formats, of their records in vinyl and thrift stores throughout the world. New bands will be formed from what people find there. It was a challenging task to identify the best Police covers, but it was very worthwhile.

— Mike Tobyn