Lot’s of good stuff here. I’ve been introduced to a surprisingly large amount of new (to me) music through the IF community. Years ago during the first ShuffleComp, I put together a youtube playlist of all the music submitted. Several of the entries have been delisted since then, but it’s still a huge list.
For that comp, in the end I started making a game based on mondegreens but the idea was too difficult to sustain longform and it was never completed or released. This was the inspiring song though:
I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff but one of my favorite artists released his new single in advance of his next album and it’s both a step forward in his progression as an artist as well as an encapsulation of everything he’s done so far…
I posted this one previously, but now this one is on my playlist and it’s like an earworm drilling into the depths of my subconscious. My wife says it didn’t have far to go. I don’t know what she’s getting at. Anyway, if you liked any of Prince’s music, this song is the ultimate fan letter.
Rediscovering the 1994 debut album by dEUS, an innovative rockband. They were a breath of fresh air and chaos in the Belgian music scene of the time. This quote from Terry Pratchett feels applicable:
“Refreshing as a fart in a room full of roses.” (Witches Abroad)
Many of the original members founded music bands or other creative projects of their own (most notably my favourite whom I already talked about here: Stef Kamil Carlens). Huge influence on all rock and guitar-pop that came after, and still going strong in their own right.
dEUS: Suds & Soda from the album worst case scenario:
A few months ago my music professor showed that album to me, and we both laughed. It was a funny concept, and pulled off not half bad. (Still I prefer the OG)
Toots Hibbert was an absolute treasure. For anyone not familiar, he’s the performer whose 1968 track “Do the Reggay” gave reggae its name, and he was still performing and recording into his '70s, until COVID got him in 2020.
Been really into Amanda Pascali’s work lately. She heads a project to preserve Sicilian (a language designated “vulnerable” on the UNESCO endangered languages list) folk songs by translating them into English and performing bilingual versions like the one I’ve linked above. The songs she focuses on were largely popularised by Rosa Balistreri, who protested social injustice through her music, publicly denouncing social inequality and demanding justice for working-class Sicilians, particularly Sicilian women.
This particular song also has been really lovely to have percolating in the brain whilst thinking about an AU that Sophia and I have done quite a bit of writing in together, racing along the themes that are so fundamental to the music.
This is great. I often really enjoy it when artists are covered in a completely different genre. There’s a wonderful album of covers of The Carpenters, called If I Were A Carpenter, where the covers are all 90s alternative rock bands. Sonic Youth’s is probably the best:
How have I not heard this?? Absolutely love Sonic Youth’s cover, it rivals my previous fave Carpenters cover:
(the singer/violinist of Les Mouches, Owen Pallett, would go on to play with Arcade Fire, do soundtrack work for films like Her, and put out some phenomenal solo albums.)
You guys are bringing the heat today, I can’t believe how good this is lol
I had a listen to a few other of her songs and she is really quite wonderful.
This is fun. I love the sort of shambolic/unsettling approach. Since we’re talking unconventional covers, I wonder whether this bluegrass cover of Snoop Dog is widely known:
I don’t know much hip hop music so I didn’t even realise it was a cover when I first heard it about 14 years ago.
I like the covers Alan Jackson and DragonForce did of Ring of Fire… and while it feels like an odd choice for a Metal cover of a Country Song and at the risk of being flamed, I prefer Jackson’s version to Cash’s.
I like Billy Ray Cyrus’s cover of “These Boots are made for Walking” though at the time I first heard it, I wasn’t aware covers were a thing and it was much later that I heard the Nancy Sinatra version.
I prefer the version by Simon and Garfunkle, but I do like Disturbed’s cover of The Sound of Silence.
