Dec 132013
 

Fifty years ago, a covers album wasn’t called a “covers album.” It was called an album. Full stop.

Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Billie Holiday – most albums anyone bought were “covers albums” as we’d think of them today, but that’s not how folks thought of them then. Once the public began putting a premium on singers writing their own songs in the ’60s the concept of course shifted, so that an artist doing a covers album has to be like Michael Jordan playing baseball – an okay diversion but let’s get back to the main event please.

More so this year than ever before though, that pendulum seems to be swinging back in small but meaningful ways to what an album originally meant. More and more artists are releasing LPs saying, this is not my new quote-on-quote “covers album,” this is my new album (that happens to consist of covers). The attitude showcases a confidence and surety of purpose that shows they take performing other peoples songs every bit as seriously as they do their own.

That holds true for both of our top two covers albums this year, and plenty more sprinkled throughout. Which isn’t to knock anyone doing a covers album as a lark, novelty, tribute, or side project – you’ll see plenty of those here as well – but any blurred lines that put a “covers album” on the same level as a “normal” album have to be a good thing.

Start our countdown on Page 2…

Apr 172013
 

We named San Francisco cellist Unwoman’s Uncovered the second best covers album of 2011 and next week, she releases the sequel Lemniscate: Uncovered Volume 2. She loops cello and vocal parts to make dark symphonies out of songs by MGMT and Amanda Palmer. We’re excited to premiere a highlight, her version of fellow big-voiced temptress Florence and the Machine. Continue reading »

Dec 092011
 

When we think back to this year, we might remember 2011 as the year that the whole concept of the “cover album” became more fluid, and not always for the better. Thanks to the increased prominence of sites like Bandcamp and Soundcloud, a cover album could be conceived, recorded, and shared in the space of a weekend. This didn’t necessarily lead to better cover albums, but it certainly led to more of them. They came in all formats – digital, CD, vinyl, and even cassette-only – and from all directions – labels, blogs, and even some magazines.

Which, we like to think, makes this list that much more helpful. In a year where the biggest single-artist cover album we got came from William Shatner, it proved a particular challenge to dig through the many obscure artists and assorted tributes and extract the gems. Gems there certainly were though, be they from newcomers making an impression with their favorite songs or old-timers honoring groups that influenced them decades ago. It may have taken a bit more work to find them, but the end result is as strong a selection as we’ve seen.

Continue to page 2 to read the list…

Aug 192011
 

This Week on Bandcamp rounds up our favorite covers to hit the site in the past seven days.

This week’s set puts goth cello up against grunge noise, orchestral pomp against folksy throwback. It also features a couple familiar faces. Download our favorite Bandcamp tracks this week below. Continue reading »

Jun 102011
 

This Week on Bandcamp rounds up our favorite covers to hit the site in the past seven days.

Something of a dreamy electronic feel in today’s bunch. Hazy beats and watery synth burble along under most of these tracks in the service of what is, in several cases, really a folk aesthetic underneath. As the temperatures rise, these sounds soundtrack those moments sitting under the sun in a half-awake daze when it’s too hot to move. Well, except for the Tom Waits cover, which is a different approach from a familiar name. Continue reading »

Feb 042011
 

This Week on Bandcamp rounds up our favorite covers to hit the site in the past seven days.

Once again we delve back into Bandcamp to find the week’s top free covers. There’s a bit of an ’80s theme today, with covers of songs from Pixies, the Cure, and Wham! The two that round them out buck the trend a bit: a Buffy Sainte-Marie song from 1963 and a Dirty Projectors song from 2004. The average of 1963 and 2004 is 1983 though, so there you go! Continue reading »