Can you waste a good, great, or legendary song with a terrible cover?
Of course, you can, but you have to be really inept as an artist or completely miss the point. Still, most great songs turn out to be the best material to cover. And you don’t have to simply go for it note for note (that can work too sometimes). You can completely turn it around, just as long as you hit its sense and spirit, both with the music interpretation and as long as the lyrics fit there.
Case in point here is Joy Divison’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart,’ not only that band’s best achievement but one of the greatest single songs around.
Both Alabama 3 and June Tabor & Oyster Band hit the mark here with their passionate and heartfelt versions, which may deviate from that song’s tempo and late Ian Curtis’ interpretation, but hit the spot and balance of the original.
Soda Blonde - Bad Machine
Is this a great song and will it get a cover? Who knows, but this one has all the elements of a good one for sure, and Soda Blonde rightfully has great expectations from their upcoming album.
Pedro Martins - Liberdade
You just don’t get to engage the likes of Eric Clapton, Thundercat, and Omar Hakim (featured here) if you don’t have something going on musically, and guitarist, singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist certainly does here.
Arkells - Skin
A lot of artists have a good summer song in them, and yes, try to release it in the summer, exactly what the Arkells do here, and yes, they were right to do so with this one.
Modema - Running Back
Some say the prime of trip-hop is long gone but Scottish artist Emily Zurowski does her best here to prove such statements wrong, with touches of dream pop along the way she goes a long way to do exactly that here.
Robert Finley - What Goes Around
Age doesn’t play a role if you have it in you, and seasoned veteran Robert Finley shows how to bring that good old blues/soul thang to these modern times.
Everyone Asked About You - Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts
Twee pop is another genre/style critics try to bury as passe, but the reissue of these cult favorites shows that good music never goes passe, particularly if the artist has the passion of this band.
McKezie Stubbert - Never I Know
Classically- oriented pop can sound as good and be pop as any if you as an artist don’t just go for showing off your trained skills, and settle to support the melody with those skills. Stubbert does here.
Fred Abong - My Way
No, not the classic torch song of the same name, but certainly a great take on the melancholy here from another excellent, sophisticated album from Abong.
Mari Boine - Eadnan Bakti
A lot of listeners shy away from songs that are in another language that is not English, but the Sami-Norwegian singer (here supported by keyboards expert Bugge Wesseltoft) shows that you have a good song, a great voice, and a lot of passion can transcend any border.
Nihiloxica - Kudistro
This electronic instrumental scorcher is made up of a drumming crew from Uganda and others from London and Amsterdam and shows what a mixed international crew can do at their best.
David Borne - Stardust
Another familiar song title, with a completely different song going on, this time an excellent ballad from Borne and his helping friends here.
Kurt Baker - Rock ’n’ Roll Club
Power pop specialist Baker holds on to the title of this song and does what he does best, solid to very good power pop, this time with touches of Creedence Clearwater Revival and comes up with another for everybody’s summer playlist.
Grave Secrets - Bad Blood
Dream pop artists often veer into the gothic pop genre, and this L.A. trio add some slowcore touches to spice thing up their way and actually do quite well, thank you.
Natalie Price - Superstitious
Americana now includes so many elements picked up from other genres, and it is only a matter of including these elements in the right manner whether you are going to have a good song or not. Price surely does.
Kim Moberg - The Promise
The accent in roots music can often be on the lyrics, and Moberg here talks about the damage inflicted by Indian boarding schools, both with experience and passion that she is able to transform into an excellent song.
Shamir - The Beginning
Is there anything wrong with a slice of modern (current) pop? Nothing, of course, if it is done as well as this Philadelphia-via-Vegas artist does here.
Lilits - Dodge Street
An intriguing duo that picks up their cues from quite a few musical strands which they seem to combine really well. No reason to dodge them on Dodge Street or elsewhere.
Bibio - Sorry
The genre-spanning artist follows his 10th album with an EP full of goodies like this very classic soul-tinged excellence we come to expect from this artist.
Ian Ferguson - New Love
It is summer, so yet another summer song, this time for Ferguson who goes for that summer sunset situation on the beach with a cold drink in your hand.
Bywater Call - Sweet Maria
You really have to have a voice to carry well a blues/southern soul scorcher like this one and Bywater Call’s Meghan Parnell certainly does.