After a long and tortured production process, the Michael Jackson biopic Michael comes out in theaters today. Is the movie any good? Does it matter? It’s enough of an excuse for us to count down covers of his biggest songs!
The legacy of Michael Jackson the person is—to put it mildly—complicated. But the legacy of Jackson’s music is unimpeachable. Dozens of songs that are all-time classics, and that get covered frequently, in every genre imaginable. Here are our favorites:
Before Bon Iver played “Who Is It?” one night in Washington, D.C., frontman Justin Vernon told the crowd they were about to cover Björk. Then he added, “Somebody told me that we’re doing a Björk cover because it’s so hip to do Björk covers. I just kinda like good music.”
He’s right on both counts. It is good music, and it is hip to do Björk covers. Has any other artist been covered by both Radiohead and Robyn? Not to mention Death Cab, The Decemberists, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the aforementioned Bon Iver. If they were all over Pitchfork in the 2000s, they’ve probably covered Björk. (Or, maybe more to the point, all over Stereogum, which curated an entire Björk tribute album with the buzziest indie-rock bands of the moment like Dirty Projectors, Liars, and Atlas Sound.)
Björk seems to fall at that sweet spot for forward-thinking indie or “alternative” artists. She’s innovative, experimental, and downright weird… but she’s also really really popular! Her strange and inventive videos were on constant rotation on MTV in the 1990s. She’s got a ton of amazing deep cuts to mine, but she also has household-name hits too. As Justin Vernon said, it’s just good music.
35. Thao with Secret Sidewalk — Human Behaviour
After all these years, “Human Behaviour” might remain Björk’s signature song. It’s one of those songs that, even though it’s very much of its time, it’s so distinctly Björk that it almost sounds out of time. It’s closely tied to her and her distinct voice and vocalizations, but also to the electronic sounds around her voice.
American singer-songwriter Thao decided she should do a band version. Well, sort of. She enlists a saxophonist, with her taking guitar, and with a drummer joining. Most of the electronic elements remain, courtesy of a DJ, so for the first two minutes the song is remarkably similar, despite the live instrumentation and two instruments not present in the original recording.
But then they take the song to a radical place, vamping during a bridge that feels improvised. When they return to beats and melody, they are less faithful as the song slows and Thao chants some of the lyrics as she solos. To complete the transformation, there’s a brief saxophone solo after Thao’s solo. It’s still recognizable as “Human Behaviour” at the beginning and mostly at the end, but it gets way out there in the middle. — Riley Haas
34. RIAYA feat. John Mark McMillan — Hunter
As you can probably tell from its epic, over-the-top vibe, this cover of “Hunter” was created for use in a movie, specifically 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate. You can practically smell the popcorn as it plays. Alas, it only ended up featuring in the trailer. All kidding aside, there is something so wonderfully glorious and earnest about this “Hunter.” It sounds less futuristic than was probably intended and more like music to wave your sword to, as you lead your “Army of Me’s” over the hill. It’s hard not to smile during the cover’s climax, where McMillan and the piano stand alone on their sonic mountain and presumably look over the horizon. “I’m the Hunter” indeed. Onward!— Hope Silverman
33. Emily Hope Price — Come to Me
Björk’s “Come To Me” is somehow both alluring and maternal, warding off any acknowledgement of love while at the same time making it clear that love is what’s making her sing these words. The musical bed she gives it is sort of Bond goes Bollywood in zero-G, with strings, synths and tabla creating their own atmosphere.
Cellist Emily Hope Price’s cover takes all the quilts, blankets, and pillows off that bed, rendering it spare but still rich and luxuriant in its own way. Even her intakes of breath provide their own sense of lushness, and her vocal is that of someone who wants and needs more than to care for someone. She needs that someone, and you can feel her pain at that someone being just out of reach. — Patrick Robbins
32. Bartok v Björk — Bachelorette
A child who could make music from an early age. Fully trained in the art and method of classical music, but also deeply linked to the folklore and folk music of their homeland. Someone whose defiance of convention led to being pilloried by some critics, but lauded by others. Someone who refused to be silenced when they saw what they believed to be injustice.
No, I’m not talking about Björk. I’m talking about Béla Bartók. Bartók’s journey was a more painful one, ending in exile, and he never saw the widest recognition of his genius, but he is nevertheless a good pairing for Iceland’s great musical gift to the world.
Composer Steve Hackman’s fusions between classical and modern work are a bridge of sorts, but the Björk vs Bartók project is particularly inspired. The show tours regularly, with top-class musicianship on display. Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is one of the great works of 20th-century classical music, and, when combined with words from Björk’s first three albums, there are great musical and personal stories to be heard.
The entire show is available online, but the version of “Bachelorette” captures some of the best features of the work as a whole. The French horns and brass section do some great work, and the three vocalists are mesmerizing. Whether by design or as a feat of acting they attempt to embody, in addition to the sound, the emotions of the creator of these songs. Steely determination. Awe at what they are producing. Fear that the work will go off the rails. Singers and Muses. — Mike Tobyn
31. Madison Cunningham — Army of Me
Much of Björk’s appeal is based around the contrast between the light and airy vocal against the dense hum of electronica she places beneath it. Madison Cunningham doesn’t deal in such, preferring organic sounds, conventional instrumentation and orchestration. How is it, then, that she manages to find equivalent eeriness in this haunting song? Her voice is cold and dispassionate, which renders further the eldritch spirit of the original, the absence of emotion, all the more chilling. As the orchestra swirls and the timpani clatter, you know the battle, and any resistance, is lost. — Seuras Og
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: What’s a favorite a cappella cover? Continue reading »
‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
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 »
Los Angeles-based a cappella group SONOS is known for their “indie” song selection and liberal employment of effects pedals to enhance their vocal performance. As one of the groups performing on NBC’s The Sing Off, they had to ditch those sweet sounding effects to rely on their voices alone on last week’s cover of Chris Isaak‘s “Wicked Game.” That didn’t stop them from releasing a video of the song as they would normally do it.Continue reading »
Sonos is not your typical a cappella group. Due to the lack of a bass voice in the group, they incorporate an octave pedal. They use a loop station in order to create sonic layers of beatboxing. In concert, they add an array of other electronic gizmos, from harmonizers to delay pedals. All of this adds up to a vocal performance more musically akin to Björk‘s Medulla than Andy Bernard’s nerdy band in The Office. Their first album, SonoSings, met with critical acclaim and received a bump due to the Glee craze and a live performance on NPR.Continue reading »
