It’s been 15 years since the last Al Green album. Does “Perfect Day” signal the beginning of his comeback? Unclear — I thought so after his last single, another cover, and that was five years ago. But we can hope. “I loved Lou’s original ‘Perfect Day’—the song immediately puts you in a good mood,” Green explained. “We wanted to preserve that spirit, while adding our own sauce and style.” Continue reading »
Aaron Taos says: “When Jordana and I met for the first time, we realized very quickly that we both shared an obsession with the Strokes. What’s more surprising is that we also share the same favorite Strokes song, “Under Control,” an album cut off of their second LP Room On Fire. Naturally, we decided that we had to cover this amazing tune. Reimagined as a minimalist duet, this slow burn produced by Blake Richardson (formerly artist Sage Baptiste) also comes with a lo-fi vid shot in Brooklyn, NY. We just want to make Julian Casablancas proud.” Continue reading »
Alex Lahey is an Australian singer-songwriter who topped our Best Covers of the Year list in 2021 with a rockin’ “This Kiss.” Her new version of “Hey There Delilah” was performed for The Line of Best Fit, an independent music magazine based in London. During this one-shot performance, the artist tackled the Plain White T’s biggest hit from the 2006 EP All That We Needed. As she says in the video, Alex Lahey had recently fallen in love with the acoustic guitar, which led her to perform this pop-rock tune. Continue reading »
Follow all our Best of 2021 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.
To come up with our year-end list, we listened to thousands of covers.
That’s not an exaggeration, or loosely throwing around “thousands” for effect. My iTunes tells me I personally listened to and rated 1,120 new covers in 2021. And I’m just one of a dozen people here. Many of those thousands of covers were very good! But “very good” isn’t good enough for our annual year-end Best Cover Songs list. So when we say these 50 are the cream of the crop, we mean it.
They, as usual, have little in common with each other. A few tie into current events: Artists we lost, social justice concerns, live music’s fitful return. Most don’t. But does a doom metal cover of Donna Summer really need a reason to exist? How about African blues Bob Dylan, New Orleans bounce Lady Gaga, or organ ballad Fleetwood Mac? Nah. We’re just glad they’re here.
So dive into our countdown below – and, if you want us to send you a couple hundred Honorable Mentions culled from those thousands, join the Cover Me Patreon.
– Ray Padgett, Editor in Chief
Millions saw Brandi Carlile cover John Prine’s final song “I Remember Everything” at the recent Grammy Awards. Turns out, it was a preview of a new album, a sequel to 2010’s Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, one of the best tribute albums ever. Not much more info out there yet – it’ll be out in the fall, apparently – but it has a high bar to live up to. Continue reading »
There’s been a long-standing, at times insufferable debate as to whether or not My Chemical Romance were an really an emo band. While that description was accurate in terms of the lyrical sentiments, it didn’t reflect their actual sound, a manic mix of early Queen, Iron Maiden, The Misfits and The Smiths. But no matter where they’re categorized, for some listeners coming of age and not fitting during the early noughts, they were the only band that mattered. While their signature song “Welcome To The Black Parade” was epically bombastic and capable of driving moms crazy, it also had an unfailingly earnest, empathetic and melodic heart beating inside of it. Continue reading »