As if there wasn't already too much music to listen to within a lifetime, new covers and mashups of songs are constantly being created, forcing me to believe in reincarnation in hopes that I'll have more time to listen to them all in my upcoming lives. I'm not even talking about those wannabe cover musicians, who try to get a shortcut to fame by flashing their tits in front of a camera to compensate for their small vocal range. There's actually some really great, talented artists, who take advantage of platforms such as SoundCloud and YouTube to make their voice heard by creating something people will actually enjoy listening to, some of the biggest, mainstream online artists being Boyce Avenue, Sam Tsui and Chrissy Costanza. Although I'm not even listening to their music, I am acknowledging their existence and talent and I'm truly grateful that there is proof that (not yet) commercialised artists are being born in the 21st century. The following list of artists are both famous musicians and soon to be famous artists, that reformed pop songs and made them their own, and blessed us by uploading them on YouTube where we don't even have to pay a single dime to listen to it over and over again.
1. Thirdstory covering Taylor Swift's 'Style'
I first discovered this trio in 2015, back when they hadn't produced their own music yet and only warmed our hearts with their soft and souly take on pop songs. Apparently it was Tori Kelly, who introduced the world to the trio consisting of Elliott Skinner, Richard Saunders and Ben Lusher when they uploaded 'Beautiful Things' on YouTube after having been on tour together. The atmosphere they create when harmonising together feels like the closest thing an atheist can get to heaven. Although only consisting of three voices while usually being accompanied by a simple backing track or guitar, it never feels like there's something missing. Despite the simplicity of their covers, it never seems as if there's an element that would make it complete. After having gained huge success with their covers, they finally released their first EP in 2016 called 'Searching' with one of my favourite originals of theirs called G Train. Here's to the trio that made me listen to a Taylor Swift song on repeat:
2. Kings of Leon's cover of Robyn's Dancing On My Own
As you might already know after reading my blog post about 5 artists that will survive forever, I love Kings of Leon way more than I love dipping banana in peanut butter. Not only did they influence my taste in my music like no other band, but they also performed a couple of wonderful covers that completely changed my view I had on pop songs. One example is their cover of 'Dancing On My Own', where they incorporated their style and guitar riffs to transform this song to something that could've easily appeared on an album of theirs. This cover doesn't just feel honest and raw because it's a live performance, but also because the band is completely sure about their identity and style, easily putting their own signature on a song that I would've otherwise never listened to on repeat. This is their live performance on BBC Radio 1 from a couple of years ago. Enjoy demolishing that repeat button.
3. LP covering Beyoncé's 'Halo'
LP, short for Laura Pergolizzi, is one of those artists you're mad at yourself at for not having discovered earlier. After you're done going through all the stages of grief, you enter yet another phase where you're just frustrated with the music industry for not giving such a unique singer and songwriter the recognition she deserves. I mean, come on, she has already released three albums and one EP, in addition to having written for famours artists like Christina Aguilera, Rihanna and Cher, but you still choose to play 'Baby' by Justin Bieber, years after even the only people who loved it (mostly prepubescent teenage girls) stopped giving a shit about it. The alternative singer and songwriter uploaded her powerful cover of 'Halo' a couple of years ago, and now it has finally made its way into my life and YouTube feed, only so I could pass it on to you. You're welcome in advance.
4. Catfish and the Bottlemen covering Kanye West's 'Black Skinhead'
To get some kind of variation in this list of covers of soft pop songs, I am about to show you one of my all time favourite live performances, that is something special for various reasons. It's not only one of my favourite bands covering one of my favourite rap songs, oh no. It's one of my favourite indie bands covering A MASH UP OF SOME OF MY FAVOURITE SONGS of all time. Catfish and the Bottlemen somehow made the impossible possible by creating a mashup consisting of Kanye West's Black Skinhead, the Black Keys' Howling For You and Kasabian's Shoot The Runner. How this was possible, I do not know. I suppose it's one of those magical miracles that just happen and that people write conspiracy theories about. I suggest that we decide to stop questioning some things in this world, and just enjoy a cover that combined rap, indie and rock to create this masterpiece:
5. Justin Vernon (from Bon Iver) covering 'I Can't Make You Love Me' / Nick of Time by Bonnie Raitt
After this quite exciting break, we're back to heartbreaking covers you want to listen to while crying yourself to sleep. I'm sure you have heard of Bon Iver before, or at least I hope your Spotify has made a good job trying to introduce him to you by sneaking his songs into your Discover playlists. Every time I listen to one of his songs, I feel like he's reliving some painful memory and now he's sharing it with us by blessing us with unique pieces of art and an authenticity you don't often find in our commercialised music industry. If you don't believe me, I encourage you to check out Bonnie Raitt's version of I Can't Make You Love Me and Nick of Time to understand how he's transformed these songs to make them his own words, his own music and his own musical embodiment of suffering. It's yet another beautiful mash up of two classics, that will continue being immortalised by artists like Justin Vernon bringing them back to life. Here's a piece of history for you:
Only showing five covers in one blog post is obviously a disgrace to the fact that there are so many other artists and covers out there, but I've already taken up so much of your time, that I think I'll just leave it here. Which ones were your favourites? Or did you perhaps hate them all and wonder how I can claim to have a somewhat developed taste in music? In which case, fair enough, I can respect that. Feel free to share your thoughts with me and, even better, tell me about some covers you have been obsessed with. I'd love to listen to them and make this a never ending journey of discovering unique voices and masterpieces we'll hopefully still obsess over in a couple of years from now. If you've enjoyed this one, feel free to check this space and you might see a part 2 in the future. In the meantime, you'll have to excuse me while I'm going all Columbus on YouTube and Spotify. Until next time!