The Best Cover Songs of August 2023

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Aug 312023
 
Amanda Palmer and The Righteous Babes — The Last Day of our Acquaintance (Sinéad O’Connor cover)


You’re going to notice a theme here. We have the usual grab-bag included below (see “Best of the Rest”), but, for our featured covers up top, it’s all Sinéad. There were so many wonderful tributes performed, often in concert and always powerful and moving. Many did “Nothing Compares 2 U,” technically a Prince cover but really a Sinéad song now and forever, but others selected from elsewhere in her catalog. Of this one, which just came out Tuesday, Amanda Palmer wrote, “This song means a great deal to me, as does the artist who penned it, along with everything she still stands for.” A portion of the money from sales will be donated to The Irish Women’s Survivor Support Network. Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of July 2023

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Jul 312023
 
best cover songs
Bob Dylan — Bad Actor (Merle Haggard cover)

Bob Dylan has been on a covers roll this year. On tour, he has primarily covered a number of Dead (“Truckin’,” “Stella Blue,” “Brokedown Palace”) or Dead-associated (“Not Fade Away,” “Only a River”) songs. But he’s dipped into other classic catalogs occasionally too. He did Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” for the first time and then, not long after, maybe the deepest cut yet: Merle Haggard’s 2016 track “Bad Actor.” The tape took a while to surface. It was worth the wait. Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of March 2023

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Apr 032023
 
best cover songs of march 2023
Bria – When You Know Why You’re Happy (Mary Margaret O’Hara’ cover)

Bria’s “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” made our list of the Best Covers of 2022. The track was a sneak peak at her covers EP Cuntry Covers Vol. 2, and the full thing dropped a few weeks ago. It includes a wonderful version of this much more obscure song. Bria explains: “Mary Margaret O’Hara is a creative force and one of my favorite Canadian artists. I have been a huge fan of hers for quite some time and really wanted to try my hand at one of her songs for Vol. 2. She is a real queen of vocal improvisation. It’s a trait of hers that I’ve always admired, so I really wanted to explore that when recording this cover. The video for this track is special to us, a sort of collage of memory; fragmented footage of summer taken over the last two years is dispersed throughout shots of a vast winter scene, filmed while we finished the record up North with our live band.” Continue reading »

Breakout Pop Singer GAYLE Covers Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know”

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Mar 012022
 
gayle you oughta know

Singer-songwriter GAYLE broke out this summer with the viral hit “abcdefu.” It shares some thematic similarity with Alanis Morissette’s classic “You Oughta Know,” and she made the connection clear on a new cover.

Unlike Alanis’ version, GAYLE’s cover is (sort of) a solo performance. The cover begins with a single chord and then GAYLE’s a capella delivery of the opening lyrics. As she forcefully belts out the lyrics, she is only accompanied by her sparse guitar playing. That is, until the second verse, when she is joined by her laptop. The laptop adds percussion and keyboard at first, but then the arrangement gets more sophisticated with additional guitar parts. Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of February 2022

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Feb 282022
 
best cover songs
Blacktop Mojo – My Girl (The Temptations cover)

You may listen to the gentle plucking when this begins and thing, boy that’s not what I expected from that band photo. Is this an acoustic flying V? Blacktop Mojo’s “My Girl” stays pretty and meditative for over half the run time, turning the oldies classic into a pretty folk-rock ballad. Eventually, though, true to that long-hair-and-leather image, the heads start banging and axes start shredding. Continue reading »

Damien Jurado Joins Deep Sea Diver for Alanis Morissette Cover

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Oct 112021
 
Deep Sea Diver

“Hand in My Pocket” was Alanis Morissette first chart-topping hit – in her home country of Canada, that is. In the US it didn’t chart on the Hot 100 at all. Despite that relative lack of success stateside, it’s probably her third or fourth most-covered song, after the two biggest hits from the monster that was Jagged Little Pill, “Ironic” and “You Oughta Know.”

Deep Sea Diver is a Seattle indie rock band led by Jessica Dobson who have been active since about 2009. (Dobson was also briefly a member of The Shins.) They recently covered “Hand in My Pocket,” joined by singer-songwriter and fellow Seattleite Damien Jurado. Continue reading »

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