Finding out what songs/ acts our favorite artists rock to on their own time is always an intriguing discovery, but what’s even more killer is when they bring that appreciation to life through awesome live cover treatments.
Below, peep two recent live performances that have garnered plenty of blog love (and repeated viewings by us) since their respective premieres: El Perro del Mar’s transfixing take on the xx’s debut album highlight “Shelter”, and an oh-so-smoove cover of Carole King’s oft-revisited staple “You’ve Got A Friend” by Erykah Badu.
Swedish blog-pop royalty Robyn has popped her remixing cherry with this “Rakamonie” twist on El Perro Del Mar’s possessing Love Is Not Pop highlight “Change of Heart”, decorating it with her vocals and a low-key electro-pop touch that basically makes it sound like one of her own records.
To our ears, the original, with it’s marvelously-executed, retro-baked allure, is still the better version, but Robyn does a solid enough remixing job on “Heart” to inspire mild anticipation for whatever tinkerings she may provide for other artists’ catalogues in the future.
The go-to gal when it’s odes of heartbreak and loneliness dressed in twinkly, melancholic arrangements you crave to help get you through a gray-skied afternoon, Swedish songbird El Perro del Mar keeps chugging out that depressing bewitch-craft on “Change of Heart”, the first single off her latest collection, the recently-released-in-the-States EP Love Is Not Pop.
A bit musically denser than the twee orchestral seasonings that framed her previous works (yet still somehow still able to grasp her signature stamp of weightlessness), “Change” rides along a ’70′s rock-inspired soundbed of thickened bass grooves and echo-y guitar curlicues that drift in and out of a dream-like haze as Mar’s forlorn chirp mourns yet another dead-end romance.
It’s gorgeously transfixing stuff, an aesthetic brilliantly matched in it’s accompanying clip featuring the mesmerizing visuals of two golden-hued bodybuilders doing some amazingly slo-mo’ed performance art choreography.
Originally composed and released by the iconic Isley Brothers (from their 1976 collection Harvest For The World) before becoming a major radio hit for Aaliyah nearly two decades later (her R. Kelly-handled remix of the tune remains one of the great jeep jams of the 90′s), the timeless R&B ballad “(At Your Best) You Are Love” is beautifully brought to life yet again via this gorgeous recording by twee Sweden songbird El Perro del Mar.
It’s lush R&B sparkle now transformed into a low-key, electro-toned lullaby, Perro’s take feels damn near weightless, her ethereal coo floating through the arrangement like a barely heard whisper in the breeze. And beneath all these softened detailings, “At Your Best” sounds just as poignant as it always has, the striking chorus lyric of “You’re a positive motivating force within my life” still resonating as one of the most touching lines ever put to tape.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
Swedish blog-pop royalty 
The go-to gal when it’s odes of heartbreak and loneliness dressed in twinkly, melancholic arrangements you crave to help get you through a gray-skied afternoon, Swedish songbird 
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