“A Forest” is the first single from The Cure‘s second album, Seventeen Seconds. It features a moody intro which builds for a minute before the pace suddenly picks up to something resembling contemporary post-punk. Robert Smith’s vocals don’t even enter until nearly halfway through the four-minute song. The song helped lay the groundwork for the gothic rock sound so popular through the 1980s. Continue reading »
We all know “Take On Me,” whether because of its iconic synth melody, that elongation of “two,” or its rotoscoped music video. Though a pretty big hit at the time – #1 in at least 14 countries – it’s become one of the most iconic songs of the decade. When you think ’80s, you probably think this A-Ha song. Continue reading »
No Rush song speaks as directly to the tormented teenage soul as 1982’s “Subdivisions.” Its fat synthesizer lines and darkly perceptive lyrics about suburban teen alienation made it the perfect angst anthem to turn up to 11. Forget “How Soon Is Now”; “Subdivisions” is the song that truly understood what you were going through. The song’s release coincided with the launch of MTV, so its video was a frequent part of their daily rotation. Continue reading »
Under the Radar shines a light on lesser-known cover artists. If you’re not listening to these folks, you should. Catch up on past installments here.
Paola Bennet uploaded her first cover to YouTube in 2010. Since then, she has posted over 60 videos of covers and original songs. The videos themselves are nothing fancy; they have a simple background and feature Bennet and her acoustic guitar. However, the sound that the videos showcase is of much higher quality than your typical self-made acoustic guitar cover appearing on YouTube. Her voice has an impressive range and she wields it with sure control.
Bennet self-identifies her music as living in the “sadgirl folk” genre, which is extremely relatable. What better way to welcome the sunshine during quarantine than to listen to some nostalgic, acoustic guitar covers, executed with poise and grace? In this post we’ll showcase a sample of Bennet’s covers throughout the years.
‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
Are there any bad John Prine covers?
I mean, sure, there are bad covers of anyone worth covering. But it struck me going through the many candidates for this list that they mostly ranged from transcendent on the high end to pretty good on the low. “Pretty good” was about as bad as it got! I don’t think you could say that for anyone else we’ve featured in this series. Continue reading »