The twisted xylophone, the brushed drums, the cascading vocal lines. It straddles the lines between indie and pop, soul and electro beautifully. Vancans submitted this great electro-rock cover back in November, but at the time the best we could do was include it in a Submissions Roundup. When the style and the song blend so flawlessly though, a classic cover emerges. The biggest name of this set, the Fray sound exactly as you’d expect: incredibly emotional with extra piano. Brace yourself for the hair-metal guitar solo. The first look at Swedish production duo Blänk’s upcoming debut album, “Welcome to Heartbreak” combines the hip-hop swagger of the original with spacey electronics and a much more exciting beat. Things get weirder as the song progresses. It holds true to the synthed-out spirit of the original, taking it in an indie electropop direction. Mobius Band’s second free Valentine’s Day EP included covers of the Everly Brothers, Tom Petty, Townes Van Zandt, and…Kanye West. No other Kanye West album would be remotely feasible – where the “New Workout Plan” covers at? – but this one proved a cinch. Below, then, we present covers of every song off 808s and Heartbreak. The preponderance of “Love Lockdown”s alone could keep a cover blog going for weeks. The reason is clear – covering a pop song is much easier than covering a hip-hop song. One fact has remained consistent, though, and that is that this album lends itself to covers better than any other Kanye album.
More generous types recognize, however belatedly, that West perversely used Auto-Tune to make his music more human, not less. 808s clearly played a role in shaping West’s undisputed masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, so even the holdouts reluctantly credit the album as a stepping stone to greatness. Three years later, though, people look back on the album more fondly. The fact that he masked his vocal deficiencies with Auto-Tune at the very height of the anti-Auto-Tune fervor made 808s a particularly easy target. Following three critically-acclaimed rap albums, a heart-on-sleeve pop album by a guy who clearly could barely carry a tune proved dead on arrival. Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak was universally derided upon its 2008 release.
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