With most of the appeal of Ellie Goulding’s current UK smash “Starry Eyed” lying in the sonic dramatics of producer Starsmith’s slathering of dance-tronica sparkle, we didn’t think there would be anything remotely interesting about a stripped-down version of the tune that completely does away with his toilings…that is, until we heard this acoustic take Ellie brought to the BBC Live Lounge studios last week.
Aiding in quieting critical murmurs that she’s somewhat of an inconsequential vocalist, Goulding takes hostage of your full attention from the first moment she opens her mouth here and never lets go, exposing striking, quiver-and-rasp nuances in her child-like coo that could be barely heard underneath all of the studio version’s production pizazz.
We get why her industry backers would want to push Ellie as the “new La Roux” for the moment (with electro-pop being all hot and whatever right now), but hearing her in folksy singer-songwriter mode here as us thinking it’s a style she should be relying on more for future albums.
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.
Now, compared to the Beast’s re-interpretation and Example’s previous “re-fixes” of pop tart smashes (his must-have 2006 mixtape, We Didn’t Invent The Remix, featured memorable swipes at Lily Allen’s “Smile” and Britney Spears “Toxic”), the rapper’s “Tik Tok” falls a bit short on the yuk-yuks, but his version is still miles more entertaining than the Ke$ha original, if only because it doesn’t leave you feeling dirty for liking it when it’s over.
Kicking off with a teasing instrumental lick of Cameo’s “Word Up”, Ex spends the rest of the performance narrating his own day o’ debauchery, waking up in the A.M. feeling like “Queen Lizzie” and trading in Kee$h’s beloved Jack Daniels toothpaste for the dental hygiene aid of rum (especially love the Max Martin-ized pop-”rock” crunch brought forth on the chorus).
Catch the gig below, followed by a quietly compelling live go at single “Won’t Go Quietly”:
Shake away all lingering traces of doubt and save those “sophomore jinx” giggles for another band’s disastrous second go’ round. Why? Vampire Weekend’s Contra, the much-anticipated follow-up to the 2008 self-titled debut that rocked many a bloggers’ year-end round-up, has finally made it’s Web premiere (it’s currently streaming on the band’s MySpace) and…it’s…awesome.
On the surface, what the boys accomplish here isn’t too deep: they’ve simply taken the charming themes of the first album (the world-pop-focused melodic merriment, the random preppie life gibberish) and polished and expanded on them…a typical sophomore LP course of action. But in the playful and ever-awe-inspiring musical universe of VW, even the tiniest doses of ambition (be it more of a lenience on electronic-based musical textures, surprisingly moving first stabs in true balladry, or the inclusion of Auto-Tune[!?!]) go a long way.
Of the ten cuts (all single-worthy) being served, and excluding previously released delights “Horchata” and “Cousins”, for us, Contra definitely hits home-runs when it comes to “Run” and “Diplomat’s Son”.
On the former, singer Ezra Koenig is suddenly hit with the idea of going off on a romantic getaway for two, somewhere far away from “all the stars in bars” and all the gray-toned humdrum of 9-to-5 living, where he and his boo can enjoy the simple bliss of different surroundings and eachother’s conversation.
We never really learn if the duo actually act on this idea, but all the excitement built around him just putting the notion out there is satisfying enough, from the heartwarming way Ezra describes her eyes lighting up with surprise at his out-of-nowhere proposal, to the rumbling tribal-like percussion, sudden erupting bursts of horn-fare and the song-ending detour into new wave-inspired glee that all seem to illustrate his suggestion being the greatest plan ever.
The plotline to the six-minute long, hodgepodge masterpiece “Diplomat’s Son” also follows some sort of life-altering “a-ha!!” moment (“It’s not right/ But it’s now or never/ And if I wait/ Could I ever forgive myself?”) interspersed with beautifully detailed lyrical imagery (“The sight of dishes sittin’ in the bathtub”; “The moon glow(ing) yellow in the riptide”) and a tinge of nostalgia (“It was ‘81″), but that barely registers with importance when you’re being distracted by all the glorious going-ons happening in the backing arrangement.
A mechanized dancehall strut decorated with sampled M.I.A. chants, dreamy doo-wop background vox, frilly strings, Afro-pop bop and piano notes that can’t figure out if they want to portray a doo-wop or ragtime style, the production behind “Son” is a peculiar monster indeed; it’s also the best thing VW has ever put to tape…and that’s saying a lot for a band whose two full length albums so far released both feel like greatest hit comps.
Hear Contra, in it’s entirety here, but don’t forget to pick it up when it officially drops January 11th.
Omit the distractingly sublime, soft-focused R&B sheen and measured blue-eyed soul vocal that supports Wham!’s 1984 gem “Last Christmas” and it’s a bit easier to grasp the soapy devastation brought forth through George Michael’s pen. As proof of this point, look no further than this stunning live take of the Yuletide classic by Florence + The Machine.
With tender guitar pluckings weaving a somber lullaby melody behind her, Miss Welch sounds like she’s nearing ever close to an emotional breakdown as the memories of the way her cruel ex shattered her heart the previous Winter re-play in her mind over and over again.
Yeah, the familiar lyrics may express the notion that she’s since moved on (“Now I’ve found a real love…”), but the quivering fragility and caterwauling peaks captured in her performance throughout this armhair-spiking rendition tell quite the opposite story.
Grab it below, followed by a peeping of the hilarious “Literal Version” of the original music video.
Serving a sobering re-reminder of not only a Noel Gallagher-featured Oasis now being a solely past-tense entity, but also of Lily Allen’s long-hinted-at threats of an early retirement finally making the crossover into reality, you can’t help but be stricken with a double dose heaping of lump-in-throat sadness when hearing Lily’s solid Live Lounge take on the former band’s gorgeous 2008 ballad “I’m Outta Time”.
Throw in the song’s already hauntingly touching, Lennon-inspired songcraft and the nostalgia element found in Liam’s lyrics (“Here’s a song/ It reminds me of when we were young…”), and it’s almost too much “ending of eras” gloom to have to digest in one sitting.
Catch Allen’s live performances of “Time” and her own latest single, the precious friendship-to-romance document “Who’d Have Known”, below.
Nothing more but a bunch of cover songs that have been bubbling around in recent weeks. Enjoy!!
Tanya Morgan “Breakadawn”/ Skillz & Colin Munroe “Baby Phat” (De La Soul Covers)
Two highlight entries pulled from Mick Boogie & Terry Urban’s latest mixtape collabo, a multi-artist tribute compilation to De La Soul’s twenty-year strong legacy entitled Le Da Soul (download the full set here): the MJ-sampling groover “Breakadawn” see the unmistakably DLS-influenced Tanya Morgan cleverly weaving in their own spin to Pos and Trugoy’s script, while Skillz (assisted by longtime MM fave Colin Munroe) gives the curvalicious female sect a nice shout-out (“I like chicks thicker/ Imagine me dating a lil’ stick figure”) in a revamp of “Baby Phat”.
Ellie Goulding & Erik Hassle “Be Mine (Robyn Cover)”
In which two current blog-pop phenoms take a break from their respective on-the-rise careers for an acoustic guitar-backed duet rendition of Robyn’s 2005 single (best known for it’s drama-tastic spoken word bridge and one of the most heartwrenching opening lines ever put to pad-”It’s a good thing, tears never show in the pouring rain/ As if a good thing ever could make up for all the pain”).
Of course, for those who have heard Robyn’s own stripped-down take, Goulding and Hassle’s re-read won’t be that much of a mind-blower, but oh does their vocals meld beautifully when harmony time comes around.
True, the folk-y swing that Irish alt-rockers Snow Patrol build to on the hook of this Top 5 Madonna smash kind of feels pathetic when compared to the explosive epiphany Maddie brought to the table, but we must be honest with at least this much: hearing “Light”’s heavy verses under the band’s earnestly melancholy arrangement catches a pleasant lullaby-like mood we wouldn’t mind being soothed with at the end of a long and hard work-day.
Though England-born indie pop-punk/ soul-ster VV Brown was given a major hype push earlier this year when she was recognized as a Top Ten finalist in the BBC’s “One To Watch” poll, Sounds of 2009, she has so far struggled in earning much pop chart love (Out of four singles released, only one has managed to chart in the UK Top 40).
Still, we say keep following her. Not only because her critically-acclaimed debut album, Travelling Like The Light, has plenty of quirked-out, retro-pop/ rock/ soul goodies to offer (contrary to radio support), but also because she’s proven to be a hoot with her on-the-fly YouTube cover creations (check out her renditions of “Crazy In Love”, “Day N Nite” and “Best I Ever Had”).
There’s nothing silly about her take on the Rolling Stones’ 1978 classic “Miss You” though, which trades in the original’s bluesy-disco strut for a despair-drenched Southern-fried soul vibe.
Mumford & Sons “I’m Not Alone (Calvin Harris Cover)”
Part of the same London folk scene that has birthed the likes of Noah and The Whale and Laura Marling, the four-piece Mumford & Sons caught plenty of ears with their debut single, “Little Lion Man”, an enrapturing cut seething with self-loathing (“I really fucked it up this time/ Didn’t I my dear?”) and an edge-of-apocalypse hoedown rattle.
That same pluck-heavy furor is called upon for their surprisingly decent Live Lounge rendition of Calvin Harris’ ’90’s-dance tribute “I’m Not Alone”, their woodsy slant working wonders in an impressive mimicking of the same soft vocals/ loud music dichotomy that made the original so enticing.
Toronto-based indie label Paper Bag Records turned seven this month (Happy birthday PB!!), and to help celebrate this event, they’ve unleashed the covers compilation, The Seven Year Itch, for free from their site.
Amongst it’s twelve-song tracklisting, plenty of fascinating grabs can be found (including Josh Reichmann’s rustic campfire take on Bat For Lashes’ “Daniel” and CFCF’s ’80’s new wave & vocoder-baked treatment of OMC’s quirky international fave “How Bizarre”), but the one perched atop our highlight picks would have to be a cover of Andre 3000’s The Love Below-housed tribute to the classy female, “Behold A Lady”, as handled by Canadian-born noise-art eccentric Slim Twig.
Sludging up the original’s lean digi-funk with a dense garage stomp and kooky, vampiric vocals that sound like they’re being emitted from a broken-down loudspeaker, Twig charmingly re-brands the song with a brush of his own unique “ice cold” cool, providing belated props to an oft-overlooked Below gem.
Pixie Lott “When Love Takes Over (David Guetta/ Kelly Rowland Cover)”
Where David & Kelly’s original aimed to split open the heavens from it’s opening moments with all of it’s big dance diva grandeur, this Live Lounge version by English singer-songwriter Lott goes for a more organic lift-off.
Opening on a slow and meditative tip that plants a pleasant spotlight on the grainy squiggles of soul embedded in Pix’ pipes, the remake makes a better play at illustrating love taking over, growing more and more bold with each added layer of (mostly Coldplay-nicked) instrumentation and upgraded tempo notch until it explodes in a fireworks-like display of romantic euphoria.
Just in time for last week’s obsession with all things Halloween-related (we know, we’re a little late here, but…so what), Imogen Heap (better known these days as the best part about Jason DeRulo’s otherwise forgettable current-hit “Whatcha Say”) performed a cover version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” for a radio event, and in the context of a haunting piano ballad with Heap’s breathy yelps attaching a bone-chilling sense of tension to every single syllable of the song’s spook-filled lyric, it registered as a surprisingly amazing rendition of something that would seem un-cover-able.
Incidentally, it was when listening to her version, that we discovered an intriguing, and oft-overlooked, aspect to the original that had never once caught our attention in the billions of time it had met our eardrums over the years.
Now, we get that when one thinks of “Thriller”, it’s quite difficult to try to disassociate it away from being the musical foundation behind one of the greatest music videos (and choreography breaks) of all time, but has anyone ever really just listened to the song? We mean, like, REALLY LISTENED to it?
It’s an actual song about monsters that are killing people, yes, but has anyone ever noticed the cleverly pimp-ish way MJ sneaks in lines about how he’ll be the one to save you from the horrors of ghouls and goblins if you just cuddle with him, before dishing “I can thrill you more than any ghost would ever dare try/…So let me hold you tight and share a…thriller with me tonight”.
Past all the sheer (but oh-so-brilliant) absurdity of Halloween-time frights and a Vincent Price “rap” clothed in a post-disco R&B/ funk boogie, “Thriller” was also all about MJ trying to get in some girl’s drawls!!! (Instead of “Thriller night”, think “Thrill-her night” and it’ll all make sense).
If nothing else, this new revelation only re-reminds us of the pop genius that MJ was, especially considering the fact that if one of today’s big-named pop or R&B male artists had attempted something like this first, you just know that in an effort to not appear so corny, the monster shtick would have been greatly toned down with the sex element hyped the hell up (with a likely far less memorable, and expensive, video clip to accompany it).
While best known for their wildly inventive exercises in hard rock, metal, prog and pop-rock sounds (as well as a seemingly glue-stuck “like Foo Fighters” tag) that have slowly helped push them further and further into the UK mainstream view, Scottish alt-rockers Biffy Clyro have also proved over the years to be reliable in delivering some really fascinating cover songs.
From Rihanna’s “Umbrella” to Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” to Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” and The Killers’ “When You Were Young”, Clyro’s re-imaginings haven’t always bettered the originals, but in their (sometimes polarizing) attempts to recast these familiar nuggets, the results were never un-interesting either. So when the news dropped that the Biffy boys were gonna hit the Live Lounge studios, we were excited beyond imagination to hear what cover song they would try out next. When we found out it was going to be the slinky Ciara/ Justin Timberlake duet “Love Sex Magic” though, that excitement was multiplied times ten. Their last venture into American R&B (the aforementioned “Umbrella”) managed to be a winner…but what in the hell were they gonna do with this under-performing FutureSex/ LoveSounds leftover? Answer: Fill our hearts with glee!!
Rather than give it an extreme “rawk” makeover as they had sometimes handled their covers in the past, Biffy (thankfully) opt to go a more straightforward route this time, reinterpreting the original’s funk groove via some surprisingly groove-able singular guitar picking, and providing vocal performances that, while definitely awkward in that square-ish “non-soulful European white boys” kind of way, pull out some charmingly goofball, falsetto-aided male harmonies.
Mariah’s twelfth album, the recently leaked Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, may house much of the twinkly keyboards, echoed syllable hooks and silly lyrical turns that have lingered in her previous work with dominant Angel songwriting/ production team Chris “Tricky” Stewart and Terius “The-Dream” Nash (not to mention, the stuff they’ve crafted for themselves and others), but having those quirks on hand don’t at all prevent this collection from ranking as one of her most maturest albums to date.
Having little interest in the sample-based, cookie-cutter R&B-pop thrills of her past, Angel looms heavy with a mostly mid-tempo tracklisting that more often than not finds her dwelling in the depression of post-break-up heartache or selling a sassy kiss-off to a no-good boyfriend. Even the small number of relatively upbeat, “happy” numbers carry a denser musical tone beneath them, causing one to think that Mariah spent some time dipping back into her own catalogue, re-realized what a gem 1998’s under-appreciated Bone Thugs N Harmony collabo/ single “Breakdown” was, and then opted to record an entire album based around the track’s nocturnal-soul vibe.
If we had to pick one as an immediate favorite it would have to be mid-album cut “Ribbon”, a molasses-flowing bump & grinder that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dream or R. Kelly album. It’s one of the few instances on the disc in which she’s celebrating love, capturing her completely lost in the charms of her lover and on the verge of a near-breakdown when she’s forced to be separated from his touch for the smallest bit of time (“It’s been about twenty good minutes since I kissed you/ Come back boo/ I miss you/ Wish I had twenty million hours to caress you/ And undress you/ To be continued…”).
It’s a puppy love sentiment we’ve heard her wax on plenty times over in the past, but here, when supported by a boudoir-ready groove and a chopped-and-screwed-styled hook that awesomely co-signs her ecstasy with demonic chants of being like a “ribbon with a bow on it”, sounding a bit more grown-up when giddy in love goes a long way.
Hear it below (you didn’t think we would have THE MAN catch us giving out a Mariah MP3 now, did you?), followed by a clip of Miss Carey-Cannon (looking all “Vision of Love”-ly) performing her surprisingly moving cover of Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is” on Oprah.
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!)
With most of the appeal of Ellie Goulding’s current UK smash “Starry Eyed” lying in the sonic dramatics of producer Starsmith’s slathering of dance-tronica sparkle, we didn’t think there would be anything remotely interesting about a stripped-down version of the tune that completely does away with his toilings…that is, until we heard this acoustic take Ellie brought to the BBC Live Lounge studios last week. 
Shake away all lingering traces of doubt and save those “sophomore jinx” giggles for another band’s disastrous second go’ round. Why? Vampire Weekend’s 
Omit the distractingly sublime, soft-focused R&B sheen and measured blue-eyed soul vocal that supports Wham!’s 1984 gem 
Serving a sobering re-reminder of not only a Noel Gallagher-featured Oasis now being a solely past-tense entity, but also of Lily Allen’s long-hinted-at threats of an early retirement finally making the 
Just in time for last week’s obsession with all things Halloween-related (we know, we’re a little late here, but…so what), Imogen Heap (better known these days as the best part about Jason DeRulo’s otherwise forgettable 
While best known for their wildly inventive exercises in hard rock, metal, prog and pop-rock sounds (as well as a seemingly glue-stuck “like Foo Fighters” tag) that have slowly helped push them further and further into the UK mainstream view, Scottish alt-rockers 
Mariah’s twelfth album, the recently leaked
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