It's easy enough to do a decent cover song. Stumble through those familiar chord progressions, chant a few well-worn lyrics, and you're done. Great covers, however, require quite a bit more. You have to steal the song from the creator, make it yours, and still somehow give it back to them new, reconstituted and fresh with added meaning and value that maybe even its originator didn't know it had.
Here we've got some fine examples of artists pulling off exactly that tricky balance. Never rote and predictable, they make those old anthems from a thousand sing-along car rides new again, revealing elements that were always there, but were left somehow unexplored. We've got Radiohead doing pop country, indie stars doing Madonna and haunted takes on Fleetwood Mac standbys — songs you know, intimately reframed and rejuvenated. Some of them are even better than the originals that inspired them. Best of all, each one of them is probably new to your ears. Click and enjoy.
Aretha Franklin — "Rolling in the Deep," Adele
Two legendary voices, one song. Who wouldn't want this? When it first hit airwaves in 2011, "Rolling in the Deep" was as alive and electric a soul-influenced single as had been heard in recent memory. Adele's towering Cockney-flecked voice and the track's powerful, urgent arrangement announced the arrival of an international superstar and compelled hundreds of thousands to at least attempt to sing along in their cars.
No stranger to making covers and being covered, Franklin picked up a song that likely would never have existed if not for her massive influence and made it something of her own. Whereas Adele's version is hurt and anguished, Franklin adds her gospel background and curling vocal styles to track, making it oddly joyous while still conveying the same sense of loss. Each version is lightning, but there's something warmer about Franklin's. Singing along with hers in the car, however, is just as hard.
Lykke Li — "Silver Springs," Fleetwood Mac
"Silver Springs" has an odd route on its way to becoming a radio fave. Originally recorded during the sessions for 1977's "Rumors," it never made it to the album, surfacing only on the B-side of "Go Your Own Way." There it lay for 30 years, until a live version from Fleetwood Mac's reunion special, "The Dance," landed it on the charts in 1997 — a fitting reward for a beautiful song and a validation of writer Stevie Nicks' faith in it.
It appeared again on 2012's "Just Tell Me that You Want Me," an album of indelible Mac covers by Best Coast, the New Pornographers, MGMT and others (Matt Sweeney and Will Oldham's take on "Storms" is a particular treat). Here, "Silver Springs" lands in the hands of the masterful Swede Lykke Li. She strips off all the celebratory elements of the track, all the '70s glamour, and turns it into a ghost story with herself an eerie spirit haunting the man who refused her love. It's chilling, desperate, true to the original in a rare way and perhaps even better than what landed on the B-side of "Go Your Own Way" — though you'll have to decide that for yourself.
Cursive and Cymbals Eat Guitars — "Hey Jealousy," The Gin Blossoms
As wistful and almost whimsical as the Gin Blossoms' 1992 "Hey Jealousy" sounds, it hides a desperate tale of Gen-X slackers replacing casual trysts for love, weathering unemployment and trying to make it from one moment to the next. If not for its bounciness, it could shed a few pounds and be a Replacements song (note that the 1989 original version of the track very much sounds like something Paul Westerberg and Chris Mars put together).
For the A.V. Club's invaluable "Undercover" series, indie acts Cursive and Cymbals Eat Guitars tap into that slacker angst, injecting a big dose of sloppy punk that highlights the song's naturally biting spirit. It's haunted, blistering, defiant and just the right amount of angry. Unlike 1992's version, it captures the voice of the guy left holding the bag in a dead-end town that the late Doug Hopkins' lyrics created.
See the live performance here.
HAIM — "Wrecking Ball," Miley Cyrus
Much like the original "Hey Jealousy," the original "Wrecking Ball" soft-pedaled its inherent desperation, this time with a predictable, clomping arrangement. The wildly talented musicians of HAIM responded to that with an urgent cover that's heavy on '80s synth, an anxious guitar line seemingly cribbed from Mike Campbell or Steve Stevens and truly aching vocals from Este Haim.
Ryan Adams — "I Want to Know What Love Is," Foreigner
Ryan Adams is perhaps as fine a cover artist as he is a songwriter. His full-album redo of Taylor Swift's "1989" is testimony enough to that. But that he is able to ring genuine fresh tears out of Foreigner's beautiful but overblown 1984 ballad through the force of his voice (and the brilliance of his backing band) shows that his talent for reinterpretation may be unmatched.
Foxy Shazam — "Drain You," Nirvana
It is, in a very real sense, an act of heresy to cover any Nirvana tune. And, yet, Spin magazine acquitted itself when it released a collection of covers in 2011, "Newermind." Amid the many passable renditions of Nirvana hits is this gem, which skirts all the problems presented by making a cover of a song by such a revered band -- by going cuckoo-bananas on it. It's so inventive, so wonderfully at right angles with the old grunge standard, that you can't help but love it.
Rostam — "Fairytale of New York," The Pogues
If the Clash is "the only band that matters," then the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" is the Christmas song that counts. This brand-new, and fairly faithful, rendition of the 1988 classic and English-radio standard isn't much of an improvement on the original (such as that could ever be possible). And, yet, it offers a new gentility that might actually make the originally angry, drunken carol acceptable among family and in mixed company. A full win.
The Kills — "Dreams," Fleetwood Mac
Again from "Just Tell Me that You Want Me" comes a "Rumors" cover creepier and darker than the original. Here, the Kills switch a slow-burning, lush track into something growling, spare and sharp. It's remarkable in that it seems happy to throw the baby out with the bathwater, ditching Mac harmonies for a laser-like focus on Alison Mosshart's sneering vocals and Jamie Hince's snarling guitar. A keeper.
Wye Oak — "We Belong," Pat Benatar
Like the Kills' "Dreams," Wye Oak's take on Benatar's 1984 hit is a spare, stripped-down version of the original, but is no less beautiful and glittering. Drums, guitar, a couple of sequencers and Jenn Wasner's unique, open vocals capture exactly the same joy as Benatar did, without the backing children's chorus. It's intimate and still epic.
See the live performance here.
The Gypsy Kings — "My Way/A Mi Manera," Frank Sinatra
As has been said before, Sinatra's retirement party and funeral standard isn't so much a tribute to resilience and vision as it is a celebration of dickishness. That said, it's a beautiful track, as is this Spanish take from the veteran French flamenco legends. Here, you can revel in your own sociopathic self-centeredness while imagining yourself on a white sand beach with pale blue waves rolling across it. Paradise, really.
Hot Chip — "Dancing in the Dark," Bruce Springsteen
Well of course there was buzzy, hyperactive club track hiding in the The Boss' throbbing 1984 hit — it just took this group of British smartypants beat addicts to tease it out. What's truly enjoyable here is how well Springsteen's impassioned, husky, all-diaphragm delivery heard in the original translates into Hot Chip singer Alexis Taylor's trademark deadpan vocals. Oh, and keep your ears open for lyrics stolen from yet another song tucked into this twinkling track. Turn off the lights and dance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=84&v=PyN_d28-sfw
Nada Surf — "If You Leave," Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
The television show "The O.C." became a font of great covers of '80s and '90s tracks, many of them by Matt Pond PA. But few were as open and beautiful as this slow-marching, sensuous take of OMD's 1986 uptempo New Wave anthem, "If You Leave." Deeply romantic and emotionally epic, this burner by the NYC indie stalwarts is far more intimate than the original and far more affecting.
Radiohead — "Rhinestone Cowboy," Larry Weiss
Yes, this actually happened — multiple times, actually. Before the release of "Pablo Honey," the soon-to-be Brit titans were plumbing the odd depths of the 1975 oddball radio hit for its hidden ennui at both live shows and on demo recordings. More than anything, it's a joy to hear Thom Yorke auger into the lyrics with gusto and Johnny Greenwood and co. veer into twangy country-pop kitsch. They're really enjoying the hell out of themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=214&v=sy6OEvb1or8
Teenage Fanclub — "Like a Virgin," Madonna
There's a thriving industry of Madonna covers out there (punks particularly love to dive into the Material Girl's back catalog). Among the better examples is this dry, straight and buzzy take on her landmark single "Like a Virgin" by the Scottish kings of feedback, Teenage Fanclub off of 1991's "The King." Turn it up for a dual-channel dose of nostalgia.
Boyz II Men — "Open Arms," Journey
What could be a more delicious slice of pure pop cheese than "Cooleyhighharmony" colliding with the epic self-seriousness of one of Journey's most soaring ballads? Very little. Faithful and emotional, the '90s R&B group pour their voices and hearts into the radio hit, offering a track that's a pure, gooey guilty pleasure.
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