The Best Radiohead Covers Ever

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Mar 282019
 

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

best radiohead cover songs

All week we’ve been running features on every artist inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s unusually strong 2019 class. But the biggest tribute goes to the band least excited about the honor. And that’s maybe as it should be.

Their unenthusiastic reaction – as I write this, it’s not even clear if any of them will show up – reminds me of when Bob Dylan first played Obama’s White House. Bob didn’t come to his own rehearsal, or to the customary photo op with the president. He turned up at the last minute, played his songs, shook the President’s hand, and immediately left the building. And as Obama told Rolling Stone: “That’s how you want Bob Dylan, right? You don’t want him to be all cheesin’ and grinnin’ with you. You want him to be a little skeptical about the whole enterprise.” Continue reading »

Bent Knee Makes a Dark Return with “You Are My Sunshine” Cover [Premiere]

 Posted by at 11:00 am  1 Response »
Nov 062014
 

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Bent Knee here at Cover Me. Their covers somehow manage to simultaneously be both nuanced and almost overwhelmingly powerful, and to work with their source material instead of feeling like they’re working on it. While their covers don’t come around as often as we’d like, they’re an absolute treat every time they do. Continue reading »

Cover Me Q&A: Who does the best covers?

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  7 Responses »
Jun 052013
 

Welcome to Cover Me Q&A, where we take your questions about cover songs and answer them to the best of our ability.

Here at Cover Me Q&A, we’ll be taking questions about cover songs and giving as many different answers as we can. This will give us a chance to hold forth on covers we might not otherwise get to talk about, to give Cover Me readers a chance to learn more about individual staffers’ tastes and writing styles, and to provide an opportunity for some back-and-forth, as we’ll be taking requests (learn how to do so at feature’s end).

Today’s question: Which artist/band does the best covers? That’s a lot to bite off, no doubt about it, but many mouths make less chewing, and the many mouths at Cover Me are very good at raising their voices. As always, our answers are not the only answers; feel free to leave yours in the comments section… Continue reading »

Bent Knee Darkens Up “You Are My Sunshine”

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Apr 152013
 

Though one might associate “You Are My Sunshine” with a cheery delivery, it’s not altogether uncommon to find darker takes on it. After all, the lyrics (anywhere beyond the chorus) are more full of despair than the song’s titular sunshine. There are plenty of artists that will bring out the minor chords or less upbeat vocals than one might expect, but it’s a song that too few ultimately take to its fullest potential. At its lightest, it’s a piece saturated with melancholy; at its darkest and heaviest, at its most transformative, you’ll find Bent Knee. Continue reading »

Bent Knee Returns with Stunning “Since I’ve Been Loving You” Cover

 Posted by at 2:00 pm  3 Responses »
Aug 022011
 

When we came across Bent Knee’s cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” in May, a few things were clear immediately. The first was the sheer power and intensity of Courtney Swain’s voice; the second was that the band doesn’t treat their source material as source material per se. They don’t look at the night sky and set out to paint it with detail and precision and accuracy; they look at the sky and give us Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” It nods at the original, but becomes something else entirely. Continue reading »

Bent Knee Delivers a Yowling and Chilling “Creep”

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May 262011
 

There’s no shortage of covers of Radiohead’s classic, “Creep.” Oftentimes they’re one thing or another, focusing on some element of the original without the rest. There’s that guitar, rocking and grungy, juxtaposed against Thom Yorke’s steady vocals. Some bands take on the distortion, others the softer side. Both approaches typically do a fair job of capturing some of the song’s creepiness (pun intended). Continue reading »