Today we're looking at cover songs, songs originally written/performed by one artist or group that are then reimagined by a new group. Some covers are fairly conventional, as we've seen from earlier editions. When The Killers cover an Interpol song, it's not a huge shift in style or sound, but when Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames covers Depeche Mode...well, there's a bit of alteration.
Speaking of metal bands covering pop, we're starting off with the Children of Bodom cover of Roxette's "Sleeping in My Car."
Next up, I don't think it would be possible to have a medley on covers without featuring possibly the greatest and most impressively surprising cover ever: Johnny Cash's incredibly heart-rending cover of Nine Inch Nails' brilliant "Hurt." The lyrics were touched up a bit to fit Cash's Christian worldview and to not clash with his style, but it still succeeds in embodying the original spirit of the NIN song. According to Trent Reznor, when he first saw the music video for the cover, he was in studio with Rage Against the Machine's Zach de la Rocha, and both musicians were absolutely speechless after seeing the beautifully wrought cover Cash had created.
Next we have a cross-Indie cover in Iron and Wine's cover of The Postal Service's hit "Such Great Heights." I love the original, although it does suffer (as all of TPS/Death Cab's work does) from a touch of cloying oversentimentality in sound and content, but there's something refreshing about the more somber, meditative pacing of Iron and Wine's cover.
Honorable mention: Before I get to the final song, one song I wanted to include, but didn't (because it already featured in a previous edition) is Manfred Mann's Earth Band's cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light." That song is probably the poster child for the "covers that are better than the originals" trend.
And speaking of covers better than the original, let's go to our final song: Soft Cell's cover of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love." Both versions are excellent songs, there's no denying that, but Soft Cell's sound and aesthetic better suit the subject matter, better encapsulate the sense of what it means for love to be tainted. What is purity turned to corruption? The answer is below:
