Oct 112024
 
cult of luna Tannhäuser Derive cover

It will be 25 years since the release of Refused’s landmark third album The Shape of Punk to Come at the end of October. Though the band broke up right after, they reunited 10 years ago and have been touring since, while releasing two more albums. They are supposedly breaking up permanently after this current tour.

As part of the celebrations, a tribute album to Shape will be released a week or so after the 25th anniversary. The first track from it is a cover of “Tannhäuser / Derive” by fellow Swedes Cult of Luna. Funnily enough, Cult of Luna formed in 1998. “Tannhäuser / Derive” is the longest track on Shape and, like most of the album, deviates sharply from the formula of ’90s punk: The song begins with a cello solo and then the band jams along with it. There’s some silence and then the song proper starts. As befitting a song with a slash in the title, around six minutes in there is a second part with stand-up bass and melodica. Continue reading »

Oct 102024
 

OK, skip the awful title and possibly, too, the cover, but as tributes go, Ian McNabb’s Fleetwood McNabb is pretty solid. McNabb is arguably better known, in America anyway, as the prime force behind the Icicle Works, still sometimes touring under the name, give or take the availability of various ex-members. Aside and away from that, he has an enduring solo career with dozens of releases. We’ve seen him here before, his covers set of 2018, Respectfully Yours, getting a Covers Classic polish. Always, it seems, a fan of the Mac, through their myriad shape-shifts, Fleetwood McNabb is a tad different from many tributes to the band, in that it starts in the ’60s British Blues Boom and travels all the way to almost the last extant incarnation. So South London to Malibu, and all points between. Including the bits few recall or even know about.
Continue reading »

Oct 102024
 
sharon van etten i won't back down

The AppleTV+ mystery comedy Bad Monkey‘s full soundtrack album is now out, revealing the complete list of Tom Petty covers for those who haven’t been watching the show. (See flipturn’s cover of “Don’t Do Me Like That” for one of the covers that was released before the album dropped.) Sharon Van Etten is one of the more high profile artists to contribute to the soundtrack, though hardly the highest profile given the presence of Eddie Vedder and Weezer. Continue reading »

Oct 092024
 

Maanyung is a singer and songwriter currently based in Australia, and his debut with the radio station Triple J’s covers series Like a Version is making waves. Maanyung decided to cover Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” from the Barbie movie in order to honor the feminine. During an insider interview, the artist stated: “The women in our culture, they’re the storytellers, they’re the knowledge holders, they’re the creators, so I really think that (this) song itself is so fitting.” Continue reading »

Oct 082024
 
elvis costello waylon jennings

A new, expanded version of Elvis Costello’s 1986 album, King of America, includes a previously unreleased live version of the Waylon Jennings classic, “The Only Little Daddy That’ll Walk the Line.”

The box set, titled King of America & Other Realms includes 6-discs of additional material, including a January 27th, 1987 performance of the song at a sold-out Royal Albert Hall in London. And that isn’t the only cover Costello played that night. He also performed Buddy Holly’s “True Love Ways,” Ray Charles’ “What Would I Do Without You,” and Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Your Funeral and My Trial.”

Costello’s backing band that night was not The Attractions, but instead included guitarist James Burton and bassist Jerry Scheff from Elvis Presley’s TCB Band, drummer Jim Keltner, Benmont Tench from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on keyboards and T-Bone Wolk on accordion and mandolin. (Many of these musicians also played on the album as well.)

Costello’s version hews closely to the original, as Costello continued his exploration of American music, including folk and, in this instance, country.

King of America & Other Realms is available on November 1st.

Oct 072024
 
Nick Cave Burt Bacharach

When you think Nick Cave, you might not necessarily think “joy,” but, the concept has been coming through in his more recent work, none more recent than his new cover of the Burt Bacharach classic “What the World Needs Now is Love.”

The cover appears on the soundtrack for the Todd Phillips film Joker: Folie a Deux.
Cave’s song is part of a larger medley, featuring “Slap That Bass” and “Get Happy” (Cave’s voice isn’t instantly discernible in those sections of the song). The medley invokes a 1940s big band vibe, incorporating a full horn section, along with a xylophone and drums. And while at first the thought of all those ideas combined seem rather incongruous, it actually works.

The idea of love and joy aren’t necessarily new additions to the Cave cannon. In 1992, he recorded cover of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” with former Pogues front man Shane McGowan. And as far as joy is concerned, Cave’s latest album with the Bad Seeds, Wild God, actually features a track with that name.