Jun 102011
 

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak was universally derided upon its 2008 release. Following three critically-acclaimed rap albums, a heart-on-sleeve pop album by a guy who clearly could barely carry a tune proved dead on arrival. The fact that he masked his vocal deficiencies with Auto-Tune at the very height of the anti-Auto-Tune fervor made 808s a particularly easy target.

Three years later, though, people look back on the album more fondly. 808s clearly played a role in shaping West’s undisputed masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, so even the holdouts reluctantly credit the album as a stepping stone to greatness. More generous types recognize, however belatedly, that West perversely used Auto-Tune to make his music more human, not less.

One fact has remained consistent, though, and that is that this album lends itself to covers better than any other Kanye album. The reason is clear – covering a pop song is much easier than covering a hip-hop song. The preponderance of “Love Lockdown”s alone could keep a cover blog going for weeks. Below, then, we present covers of every song off 808s and Heartbreak. No other Kanye West album would be remotely feasible – where the “New Workout Plan” covers at? – but this one proved a cinch. Auto-Tune not included. Continue reading »

Jun 032011
 

New Hampshire roots-rock trio Aunt Martha landed a coveted spot on the lineup of Bonnaroo next week and they’re celebrating in style: by covering songs by their Bonnaroo 2011 peers. Starting last month with Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies),” they’ve been posting a new cover recording to Vimeo every few days and it’s about time we rounded up some of the best of them. Continue reading »

May 022011
 

We don’t stumble across all that many hip-hop covers here at Cover Me. The ones we do get are often in some other genre – either an instrumental or electropop or country-fried cover devoid of any actual rapping. Delightfully, this isn’t the case with Boston duo Karmin’s latest. Continue reading »

Welcome Home Weezy!

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  2 Responses »
Nov 042010
 

If you haven’t heard, perhaps because you have better things to do with your time, Lil Wayne just got out of prison. After eight months in, Wayne’s star has never been higher. Even the New York Times has been live-blogging his release! He spent his final month in solitary confinement, which apparently translated into “Even more time to write lyrics.” Given that his output was so minimal during his stint – he only released one chart-topping album! – we look forward to having him back.

To welcome him home, we present five of our favorite Lil Wayne covers. We have to get this old stuff out of the way now, since by day’s end he’ll likely have dropped two more mixtapes. Apparently he demanded a plane with a studio so he could lay down some tracks on his flight home. Welcome back, Weezy! Continue reading »

Oct 222010
 

They’ve only done one cover so far, but I’m calling it now: Mar Variations (a pun on Tom WaitsMule Variations?) will be the breakout covers band of 2010. This project gathers together indie musicians, artists, and production folk Mar, Nalden, Yoji Moniz, Full Crate and Dolly Rogers for a series of covers. Mar does the actual performing, but the team works together on beautifully-produced videos (watch each of them describe their role in the “About” clip below).

Every month they’ll be dropping a new video and MP3 and, if the first sample is any indication, this will be a project we’ll be coming back to. The first song is Lil Wayne’s “I’m Single,” first released on 2009’s No Ceilings mixtape and again last month on I Am Not a Human Being. Humorous though they are, the Weezy connections are incidental. This hazy wash blends R&B into dream-pop territory. In context, the lyrics will make you laugh the first time through (“I cut my phones off, both lines / It’s ’bout to get nasty, pork rinds”), but on repeat listens the irony fades. Somehow, this pairing just makes sense. Watch the video and download the MP3. Below that, check out the introduction video to learn more. Continue reading »

Jul 232010
 

The parody is the cover’s evil twin. While a good cover keeps the lyrics and changes the music, a parody does the exact opposite. As such, much of what “Weird Al” Yankovic does falls outside this blog’s purview (though covers of Weird Al songs are always popular). His polkas, however, fall strictly in the cover camp. On every album he creates a medley of popular hits set to polka tunes. The lyrics stay intact, the music goes oompah-oompah. Sounds like a cover to me!

He has been opening the shows on his latest tour with a brand-new polka featuring Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Kid Cudi and more. It will presumably appear on his next album as a track titled “Polkaface.” The bummer flipside is that any song included in a polka is now off the table for parody, but you can count on another Lady Gaga song getting the Al treatment. Continue reading »