In 2013, the group went a step further and tapped British vocalist Emeli Sandé for a jazz-age makeover of “Crazy in Love” for the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Roxy Music lead singer Bryan Ferry founded the orchestra that bears his name to reinterpret his own songs like jazz tunes from the Roaring ‘20s. The Bryan Ferry Orchestra – Crazy in Love It would rank even higher, except I can’t say I think much of his lyrical changes.
Similar to “Dirty Diana,” it’s a dark and wonderfully layered production underpinning his lilting falsetto. “Drunk in Love” came more recently, when he was already fully ensconsed in megastar status. The Weeknd’s “Dirty Diana” cover topped our best-of-list, back when Abel Tesfaye was a semi-anonymous enigma dropping mysterious mixtapes online. He treats it like a deeply personal story and song instead of an answer to the unlikely question of what would happen if a Norwegian crooner covered Beyoncé. Finally, the song doesn’t devolve to irony or novelty, because Lerche finds new ways of singing it throughout its three minutes. Though some of the gender stuff feels a little homophobic, a deeper listen reveals some interesting stuff that re-narrativizes the song, and Lerche never shies away from lyrics that might make him sound silly. But it’s also a rendition that reveals how the original doesn’t need flair or digital wizardry to be a good song. It draws a ton of attention to gender-swapping pronouns – and additional words like “shorty” and “chick” – in ways that come close to making me uncomfortable. Norwegian crooner Sondre Lerche’s cover of “Countdown” – my favorite Beyoncé song and it’s not really close – is perhaps tender to the point of being ironic. So let’s start the countdown (heh) of the best B covers ever. I challenge you to find another list on the internet containing both serpentwithfeet and Reba McEntire.
Appropriately enough, the artists doing the covering represent an equally wide spectrum.
And every other facet of her career is represented, from the Destiny’s Child radio hits to her early solo pop jams to the more recent political tracks from Lemonade and beyond. There aren’t any Everything Is Love songs covered here, but we can’t imagine the first great “Apeshit” cover is far off. In tribute, we’re writing this entire post from the Louvre. So it was extra nice of her to drop a surprise album with her husband, what’s-his-name, to give us something else to tie this into. Okay, maybe that’s not the only Beyoncé news setting the internet aflutter these days – but it is the reason we initially decided to do this list. We all know the reason everyone’s talking about Beyoncé this month: It’s the fifteenth anniversary of her debut solo album Dangerously in Love!
0 kommentar(er)
