IT seems most bands have had a memo dictating if they’re going to cover a song, they should take out everything but one instrument and slow it down by half.
The result is a bland and miserable collection of ‘gritty’ and ‘dramatic’ takes on popular songs. Worst offender on show here is the Maroon 5 cover of Pharrell Williams’ Happy – reducing it to a boring and downbeat dirge, thereby missing the point.
Equally bad is the Little Mix medley of Jay Z and Justin Timberlake’s Holy Grail, One Republic’s Counting Stars and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, complete with flat vocals and altered lyrics. Highlights exist though, mainly with artists performing their own work – George Ezra’s Budapest, Ellie Goulding’s beautiful How Long Will I Love You, and Aloe Blacc’s surprisingly good The Man.
The best covers are Labrinth’s version of Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off, Tom Odell doing Katy Perry’s Roar, and Hozier’s cover of Arctic Monkeys’ Do I Wanna Know.
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