10. Rock Lobster (The B52s) and Psycho Killer (Talking Heads) by The Medicine Dolls
This whole album was good–not good enough to make my top 30, but still a very nice punk record.
9. Beds are Burning (Midnight Oil) by Angelique Kidjo.
Live on Stephen Colbert, so the recording quality is excellent. A very timely song for 2020, made more so by the fact that Midnight Oil returned with their first new album in a decade–and their best in longer than that.
8. Learning English Lesson 3: MERSEY BEAT! The Sound of Liverpool by Die Toten Hosen
Raucus oldies covers. See also A Loss for Words‘ postpunk take on Motown….
7. Living on a Thin Line (The Kinks) by Ghost Light.
Wow. Nobody covers The Kinks anymore, let alone a jam band. I love The Kinks, and I thought Ghost Light managed to find the depth of this song–a rare “better than the original” cover,
6. Iso Lounging by Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell. If you’ve never heard of this web series, which included at least one cover song each time, you’re just not a fan of Americana, country rock, or Jason Isbell. And yes, there’s something wrong with that.
5. They’ll Never Keep Us Down by Kacey Waldon.
Country covers of protest classics buy the likes of Nina Simone, CSNY, and others.
4. More Than This (Roxy Music) by Angel Olsen. Just beautiful. Available here.
3. Black Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane) by Prince Fatty featuring Shniece McMenamin.
Psychedelia, as a genre and sound, has changed quite a bit from the 1960s. This was one of the seminal drug songs of that era, and this reggae/dub revision makes it fully contemporary. It’s fascinating, and excellent.
2. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats (Smashing Pumpkins).
The whole grunge album, faithfully reimagined as indie folk. The only thing that could be better would be new Fruit Bats music.
