Weezer - Unbreak My Heart

Album: Death To False Metal

Weezer has been talking about releasing an album called ‘Odds and Ends’ comprised of band’s leftover materials for the past couple of years. And here it is, now titled Death to False Metal. One of the highlights from the album is the cover of Toni Braxton’s song, “Unbreak My Heart.” When Rivers sings it, there is poignancy and you just want to cheer up the guy.

Charlie Hunter - More Than This /ft. Norah Jones

Album: Featuring Norah Jones

Norah Jones recently released an album with songs where she was featured on other artists’ albums. In the past decade, she has worked with numerous musicians from the legendary ones like Ray Charles, Willie Nelson as well as rockers like Foo Fighters, and even hip-hop artists such as Outkast, Q-Tip and Talib Kweli. One of the tracks from the album is Roxy’s cover song, “More Than This” with Charlie Hunter. This song was recorded right before Norah Jones signed with Blue Note, after Hunter heard the demo (the same demo that got her to sign to the label). This track has become top 10 song in Japan recently.

Hugo - 99 Problems

Album: 99 Problems (Single)

Hugo has a very interesting background. He was born in theUK, but grew up in Thailand. One of the songs he wrote, “Disappear” was picked up Beyonce on her I Am Sasha Fierce album, and since then he was signed onto Jay-Z’s label. His debut album is currently in works, but he is gaining attention with the cover of his boss’ song, “99 Problems.” When I originally heard it on the radio, I thought it was Jack White.

Weezer - Kids / Poker Face

Album: iTunes Originals - Weezer

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I’ve been waiting to purchase this track from iTunes for a long time. It was available on some weird package deal, where you had to buy the entire album collection, just to get this song. But now this awesome hybrid cover song is available for a single download. Weezer has been playing this song live on their shows. One some shows, Rivers put on blonde wig to show his inner GaGa. His rapping sounds quite like Lady GaGa as well.

Santana - While My Guitar Gently Weeps /ft. India.Arie & Yo-Yo Ma

Album: Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time

Guitar god, Santana has been asking famous musician friends to sing on his albums for the past decade or so. He uses the same formula again, except this time, covering famous rock songs that are known as “the greatest guitar classics of all time.” 90s rock fans should be excited to see the featured guest vocalists such as Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave), Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), and Gavin Rossdale (Bush), as well as Chester Bennington (Linkin Park), Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach) and Chris Daughtry (Daughtry). Even rapper Nas makes an appearance.

Jeff Beck - I Put A Spell On You /ft. Joss Stone

Album: Emotion & Commotion

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Jeff Beck is a legendary guitarist from The Yardbirds. Since then he has worked on multiple projects, including working with Rod Stewart on the single, “People Get Ready” which was a big hit in 1985. Many of his tracks are instrumental only, but on his latest album, he has recruited a few of famous vocalists, including Joss Stone, who sings this cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins classic (also made famous by Nina Simone.

Matisyahu - Circle Of Life

Album: Disney Reggae Club

It’s summer time, which is a good time to listen to reggae. Just in time for summer, Disney released a reggae version of some of their most famous hits, covered by famous reggae artists such as Matisyahu, Ziggy Marley, UB40 and Yellowman. It’s an interesting concept.

Mumford & Sons - Cousins [Live]

Album: Radio 1's Live Lounge

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I am really digging this UK folk rock band, Mumford & Sons. I was really excited to hear that they had covered Vampire Weekend’s “Cousins” on BBC’s Radio1 Live Lounge (I love that show). The original song is unique enough, but with Mumford’s twist, it is even more unique, and makes me love the song even more. Check them out performing live on this video clip.

Artists For Haiti - We Are The World 25 For Haiti

Album: We Are The World 25 For Haiti (Single)

It has been 25 years since Quincy Jones, Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson gathered their musician friends to record “We Are the World.” Back in November of 2009, there was a talk of re-doing the song with completely new artists, but Lionel Ritchie, who co-wrote the song, didn’t think it should be remade, as the song was recorded for a particular purpose. But with Haiti’s devastating earthquake, Ritchie agreed that there is now a purpose, and the song got recorded.

With the exception of Michael Jackson who sings from archival footage alongside his sister Janet , none of the artists from 25 years appear on the new version.

The song starts out with Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Nettles, Josh Groban, Tony Bennett and Mary J. Blige. Toward the end, there is auto-tune and rap from LL Cool J, Will.I.Am, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and Kanye West.

Now, of course, when you compare it with the original, where almost all of them are now considered legendary artists, the song doesn’t sound as powerful. To many, the auto-tune and rap part may sound absurd. But I personally think the producers did what they can to get the song to sell for today’s music buying population. The purpose of this song is to raise money for the Haiti cause, so including Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Lil Wayne probably makes sense.

Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson - Earth Song [Live at Grammys]

Album: 52nd Grammy Awards

This year’s Grammy had most number of viewers in the recent years, and there were some good performances. One of the stand outs was the Michael Jackson tribute. The 3D footages of natures was not appealing, but having the all star artists from various different genres singing one of Michael’s beloved songs was something. Even amongst vocal powerhouse like Celine Dion or Jennifer Hudson, Michael’s voice comes across very strong. A lot of the performances from the Grammy’s is available for download from iTunes, but so far this song is not. It’s a shame.

Helping Haiti - Everybody Hurts

Album: Everybody Hurts (Single)

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Simon Cowell may be only known to American audiences as the “judge.” But he is actually a record producer, and has a lot of connections with numerous musicians. He was supposedly asked by the British Prime Minister to gather his talents to put together a charity song, and as a result, he recruited superstars such as Leona Lewis, Rod Stewart, Mariah Care, Cheryl Cole, Miley Cyrus, Bon Jovi, Susan Boyle, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams to cover R.E.M.’s classic hit, “Everybody Hurts.” The result? It tries to be “We Are the World” but it’s hard to get each singer’s personality on it. I bought the track for the cause, but after a few listen, I’m already bored of the song. At least it sold enough to make it number 1 in UK.

Justin Timberlake - Hallelujah [Acoustic] /ft. Matt Morris

Album: Hope For Haiti Now

I purchased the charity album, Hope For Haiti Now, for $7.99 on the day it came out from Amazon MP3 (they had it before iTunes). There were a couple of songs that just didn’t work (Alicia Keys sounded a little off, which is rare) but for the most part, everyone sounded amazing. My only gripe about this album was that it was more ‘depressing’ than ‘uplifting’. One of those examples is this cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (is it just me, or has this song been covered way too many times in the last couple of years?). Although it’s not my favorite track on the album, this song was #1 on iTunes download chart for a few days after it was released, so I figured I’d feature it here. For those of you wondering who Matt Morris is, he’s a son of country singer Gary Morris (I’ve never heard of Matt nor Gary either).

Rihanna - Redemption Song [Live]

Album: Rihanna On Oprah (For Haiti Relief)

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A lot of artists are donating their time and music for the Haiti effort. Rihanna performed Bob Marley classic on Oprah Winfrey show, and the live recording was available on iTunes with all the proceeds going to the Haiti relief. Rihanna may not be the greatest singer, but hearing this song makes me realize how good the song is. Rihanna actually does a decent job (she’s not the best live performer, but this one is pretty good).

Sheryl Crow - Lean On Me [Acoustic] /ft. Kid Rock & Keith Urban

Album: Hope For Haiti Now

There are a lot of great songs on the charity album, Hope For Haiti Now, but I decided to narrow it down to just three songs for this blog. I chose Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake’s songs as those two were America’s top 2 choices. For the third one, I debated between Madonna’s inspiring cover of “Like A Prayer” with choirs or Sheryl Crow’s acoustic take on one of the most covered songs in the universe, Lean On Me. Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock have performed together on numerous occasions (notably for a duet single, “Picture”), and add country superstar, Keith Urban (who is married to Nicole Kidman) and the track sounds amazing.

Jamie Foxx & Ne-Yo - I'll Be There [Live]

Album: BET Award 2009

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I was looking for a track in honor of Michael Jackson’s death, but was surprised to find that iTunes or Amazon MP3 were not releasing any tribute album for a good cause. I didn’t watch the entire Memorial Service, but some of the performances such as Mariah’s “I’ll Be There” didn’t sound as good as she did 15 years ago. I was happy to find this version with Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo did at this year’s BET Music Award, which had a lot of tribute for Michael Jackson, including Ciara doing “Heal the World.” Maybe in several months, iTunes will do a similar thing they did for Frank Sinatra, where the contemporary artists cover the legend’s hits.

Seether - I've Got You Under My Skin

Album: I've Got You Under My Skin (Single)

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South African band Seether recently released a cover of George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”, and now they are doing another cover, this time one of Frank Sinatra’s. To commemorate Frank Sinatra, iTunes has asked numerous artists to cover Sinatra’s catalog. Artists such as Maroon 5, Meiko, The Kills have attempted their version. Some do it just like the original, and do a good job (like Maroon 5), but some tried to do their own version and fail. Seether does a darker version of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” but it actually works quite well. It may take a couple of listens before you can appreciate it, but maybe they should think about doing all cover album, as they are good at interpreting other artists’ songs.

The Lemonheads - Beautiful

Album: Varshons

The Lemonheads became popular in the 90s with hits like "Into Your Arms" and cover of "Mrs. Robinson." They are back with covers album, with songs by Leonard Cohen (featuring vocal from Liv Tyler), Arling & Cameron (featuring vocal from Kate Moss), and Townes Van Zandt to name a few. In these relatively unknown lineup (to top 40 listener at least), there's Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" cover. It sounds like something out of a jukebox. The Lemonheads are currently working on a new album with all new material.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Take Me With U

Album: SPIN Presents Purplish Rain

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It’s the 25th anniversary of Prince’s Purple rain album, and the music magazine, SPIN decided to do a full tribute album featuring indie artists such as Of Montreal and Chairlift. Although the concept is great, most of the cover sounds like a cheap imitation. It’s Prince. Unless you do something drastically different, it’s tough. There were two noteworthy cover. One was by The Twilight Singers who completely changed the sound of “When Doves Cry.” But my favorite was Sharon Jones take of “Take Me With U.” It’s not the most famous Prince song on the Purple Rain album, but it’s a brilliant cover.

MxPx - Linda Linda (English)

Album: On The Cover II

“Linda Linda” is a very popular punk song sung by a Japanese punk band called Blue Hearts. Although the official title of this particular song is “Linda Linda (English)” the song starts out with the Japanese verse. The chorus part had been translated into English. Apparently they are not the first band to cover this track, as Andrew WK had covered it before. This song is on MxPx’s latest album containing all cover songs.

The Fray - Heartless [Swinghouse Session]

Album: The Fray Live: iTunes Pass

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This year’s American Idol contestant, Kris Allen hadn’t been standing out much on the show, but during the top 3 performance week, he came through with acoustic version of Kanye West’s “Heartless.” It was bossa nova, street musician style, and I loved it. Just a few weeks ago, The Fray had released their version on piano, which is probably where Kris Allen got the inspiration from. Kanye isn’t the greatest singer in the world, but when you hear it sung by someone like The Fray, you realize how good the song really is, and how brilliant Kanye West is for writing a song like that.