New Cover Songs: The Killers, Jack Johnson, Fall Out Boy, More

Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 6:40 pm

Rythms Del Mundo - Classics

What do you get when you throw classic rock, salsa music and artists like Jack Johnson, The Killers, John Mayer, Amy Winehouse, The Stones and Fall Out Boy – to name a few – into a giant blender? You get Rhythm Del Mundo’s “Classics” of course.

The compilation is a charity release with all of the proceeds going to a charity by the name of Artists Project Earth (APE). Overall it is pretty interesting listen. Here are my thoughts as I go track to track – skipping a few here and there.

The Killer start the whole thing off with an oddly upbeat version of “Hotel California”. Overall I think it is a decent tune but salsa seems to suck out some of the songs darkness a bit which – in my humble opinion – contradicts the lyrics.

Not sure what to say about the Amy Winehouse “Cupid” tune. Almost sounds like she is slurring the words a bit (could it be because…nah, I’m not going there).

Jack Johnson does John Lennon’s “Imagine” and it sounds like…well…Jack Johnson singing “Imagine”.

There is very loungy, and unexplainably appealing version of The Velvet Undergrounds “Walk on the Wild Side” by someone called the Editors.

The OneRepublic version of “For What It’s Worth” is way groovy but kinda like the “Hotel California” it almost looses to much of its emotional weight. The original has such a gripping, eye opening message whereas the cover almost trivializes the message.

Fall Out Boy and John Mayer mellow out the King of Pops “Beat It” and I like the laid back “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Shanade.

There are a few more tunes on the compilation – 19 total – including a very spanish”Stairway to Heaven”.

Overall, it is fun checking out all of these tune, especially for cover geeks – like myself. It always fascinates me to hear how artists interpret other artists stuff. I may have been pretty judgmental on a few tunes but the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter what I think. I applaud every artist that steps up to the mic and takes a shot. When I learn a cover tune that I want to perform, I put a lot of thought into making sure I make it my own if at all possible because in the words of Lionel Richie in one of my all time favorite tunes “Easy”, “I ain’t happy when I try to fake it.” And I’m sure most artists would agree.

Anyway, I hope you like the post. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you have to say.