On his new covers album High Drama, Adam Lambert didn’t pick one of the obvious Billie Eilish songs to cover (“Bad Guy,” “Everything I Wanted,” etc). He goes for relative deep cut “Getting Older,” off her 2021 album Happier Than Ever. Eilish’s original was fairly minimalist. Lambert doesn’t do “minimalist.” His “glam” version, as he describes it, makes the song sound like a much bigger hit than it was. Continue reading »
Whenever the Grammy Awards roll around, I find myself paying far more attention to the “down-ticket” categories than the main ones. While the endless debates about the artistic merits of Harry Styles versus Beyoncé light up Twitter, a Grammy win for one of the lesser-known artists can do wonders for their career. This year I was especially excited for Molly Tuttle winning the award for Best Bluegrass Album (she was also nominated for Best New Artist). Tuttle is one of the leading bluegrass guitar wizards of our age. Her album, Crooked Tree, featured a solid fusion of country, folk and bluegrass. The deluxe edition included an exceptional cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Dire Wolf.” Continue reading »
In honour of Carly Simon’s induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame over the weekend, Olivia Rodrigo was tasked with performing one of Simon’s biggest hits “You’re So Vain” for the induction ceremony. The cover itself is very straightforward, as you’d expect for a ceremony of this type – Rodrigo’s voice is on fully display here, and seemed to be a good choice for the track, given her track “good 4 u” being of similar sentiment. Continue reading »
Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi has finally gotten himself back into the recording studio. He recently released a cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s monster hit “Driver’s License,” recorded at world-renowned Abbey Road Studios along with a new, chilled-out version of his song “Forget Me,” for Spotify. Continue reading »
We kick off this month’s list with not one but two Harry Styles covers! And both performed for the BBC Live Lounge, no less, which clearly went all-in on promoting Harry’s new solo album. First up is Arcade Fire, also currently doing the promo rounds for their own new album, tackling Harry’s new song “As It Were.” It speaks to how much classic-rock Styles has in his DNA that the song fits perfectly in Arcade Fire’s anthemic-rock template. Never ones to not go out, the cover features multiple twelve-string guitars and a dude playing a giant rack of tubes with a hammer. Continue reading »
Billboard’s woman of the year, Olivia Rodrigo, is a certified Gwen Stefani fan, and recently performed a banging cover of “Just a Girl” in her concert on May 6 on the Philadelphia Met Stage. Rodrigo met Stefani for the first time at the Met Gala. Before her performance, Olivia said “I got to talk to her (Gwen Stefani) for a while, and she’s just the coolest human in the world. I love her music so much and I wanted to play this song for you guys tonight.” Continue reading »