Long gone are the days when I’d listen to Radio 1’s Live Lounge every morning of the school holidays or over revision during study leave, but I have been loving Live Lounge month so, in its honour, here are some of the best LL covers from this year!
Wolf Alice – Steal My Girl (One Direction)
Nobody expected Wolf Alice to cover One Direction, but here they are with maximum echo.
Slaves – Go (The Chemical Brothers)
Slaves are masters of the cover version. They make every song sound like their own. See also: Skepta’s Shut Down Slaves-style.
Chvrches – Cry Me A River (Justin Timberlake)
A Noughties classic turns Scottish and synthtastic.
Lucy Rose – Bad Blood (Taylor Swift)
Taylor Swift has been covered a lot in the Live Lounge recently, but this beautiful, simple cover of Bad Blood is my favourite by far. I particularly love the change from ‘band aids’ to ‘plasters’.
Ella Henderson – Hold Back the River (James Bay)
Finally, a cover that is far from inventive, but is brilliant anyway. Ella Henderson is very easy to love — Ghost is the only good song I can remember coming out of The X Factor in recent years — and a great voice plus a great song always equals greatness!