Videos of the Week June 23rd

It's been a while since I've been this stoked about a trio of music videos released in one week. Led by the seductive Rihanna and smooth vocals of Bryson Tiller, DJ Khaled's Wild Thoughts started the week off on a high note. Then, around mid-week, two of my favorite songs in 2017 were blessed with visuals. Desiigner's white-hot fire track Outlet finally was anointed with the cinematic fire that it deserved. It's a rare soccer-centric sports anthem with Sidney rocking a Manchester United away jersey. Man...if that track and video doesn't get you hype and wanting to take on the world, I don't know what will.

On a more mellow, but equally interesting note, Odesza's Line of Sight took a more Sci-Fi route into the top five. The story of a young kid befriending a robot was apropos for the serene vibe of the track. As a side note, I'm more than a little excited to have the opportunity to see Odesza at The Greek in October. Even though it's months off and I just saw them at Red Rocks, they're without a doubt in my top three favorite live shows right now and I'm more than excited to see them again.

Outside of the world of music videos, Khalid did a superb cover of Frank Ocean's Lost in the BBC Radio 1 studio. The piano session was perfect introduction to the up-and-coming vocalist if you haven't given him a listen yet. And rounding out this week's top five was a novelty all the way from Germany where the Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld did a orchestra cover of Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. It's not the easiest track to cover, so tip of the cap to how they put it together with the computerized vocals and all...#RundfunktanzOrchester

DJ Khaled feat Bryson Tiller & Rihanna - Wild Thoughts (Video)

Desiigner - Outlet (Video)

Odesza - Line of Sight (Video)

Frank Ocean - Lost (Khalid Cover)

Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld : Daft Punk - "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"

Photo Credit: YouTube

Cheat Codes Cook Up Some Broccoli

In case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty's Broccoli, here's another chance to hop on the bandwagon. Before diving into the live Spotify cover by Cheat Codes, press play below for a quick refresher on the Hip Hop sing-along anthem...

The flutes, it's all about the flutes on that beat. Unfortunately, the high pitched, video-game like flutes aren't carried over on the cover below, but that didn't stop Cheat Codes from cooking up their own Timeflies-esque live band version. Stripping the Hip Hop influence leads to even more sing-songiness, which gives the version it's own unique allure. Feel free and give it a few listens if you're looking to extend the lease on life of the original...#Broccoli

Cheat Codes - Broccoli (Cover Recorded at Spotify)

Nero Pays Tribute to Prince in the Best Way Possible

It's been almost two weeks now since Prince passed away and there's still just as many questions as answers surrounding his death. One thing's for sure, no one really truly knew Prince, yet everyone loved him. From his music to his secret philanthropy, the world was a better place because of him and I'm looking forward to his life being celebrated more and more as we get to know more about his life.

Given that Prince's music was so funky and unique, he makes for a tough cover. What I like about Nero's choice to cover Prince was that they chose to remake one of his unreleased tracks. For reference, the live version below from 1983 at First Avenue in Minneapolis may have been the only time Prince played the track Electric Intercourse...
Nero knew they weren't going to be able to layer on the sexual goodness that Prince is able to bring, but they did justice to the original with their own drum unique synths and drum patterns. The fact that they conquered this demo in a few hours is pretty legendary. It's a bummer that this cover had to come to light after Prince passed, but mashing old and new and crossing genres is literally music to my ears...#ElectricIntercourse

Nero - Electric Intercourse (Prince Cover)

"I'm Ridin' Round With My System Pumpin' LSD"

If you would have told someone did an acoustic cover an A$AP Rocky's track, it may have been difficult to hold back laughter. That being said, if the lyrics are interesting enough on any track and the artist covering it doesn't butcher the chords, it won't take a lot to transform anything into an acoustic cover. Before you rush to judgment, give a listen to the original version of A$AP's LSD...
Pretty trippy track and not as Hip Hop as you expected, right? Hence why Raury was able to get his foot in the door on the acoustic cover. If you haven't heard of Raury, he hails from the ATL and was on the highly acclaimed XXL Freshman class of 2015. Watching the live cover of the track will give you everything you need to understand why he's generating so much hype. He's got that Bobby Ray versatility and is very comfortable singing, rapping and rocking the guitar if you let him. At the ripe age of 19, there's no traffic on his highway to success...#Raury

Photo Credit: YouTube

Videos of the Week January 8th

Admittedly, it was an underwhelming week for videos. Rarely am I ever scraping the barrel for a top five, but it was a slow start for the year. I say that but Kendrick Lamar's debut performance of his latest Untitled track on Fallon was the show stopper of the week. You want to talk about energy in a performance! He brought his A game to the party.

Coming in a close second was Gallant, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists. With the help of Sufjan Stevens, he showed again why he's THE rising star when it comes to R&B vocalists. Continuing with an R&B tip, Majid Jordan made news this week when they released the tracklist for their upcoming album along with the new video for their latest single Something About You. In electronic news, if you were wondering how easy or hard it is to make a track, Flux Pavilion was willing to show you in a matter of ten minutes. Pretty cool how it all comes together more quickly than you'd imagine. And last, but not least, your boy Yonas came through with yet another interesting cover. This time, he did work on Adele's Hello. But, to his credit, he put his own interesting rock twist on it with the help of Living in Fiction...#Yonas
Kendrick Lamar - Untitled 2 (Live on Fallon)

Gallant & Sufjan Stevens - Blue Bucket of Gold (In-studio Video)

Majid Jordan - Something About You (Video)

Flux Pavilion Makes a Track in 10 Minutes

Yonas feat Living in Fiction - Hello (Adele Cover)

Photo Credit: YouTube

Stephen Re-imagines Adele's Hello

By now you've undoubtedly heard Adele's new comeback single Hello and taken the time to recognize it's limitless potential. There simply aren't many people in the world who have the vocal talent of Adele, so it shouldn't be a surprise that her new video for the single has over 190 million views on YouTube in ten days. Feel free and give it a listen below if you found a way to not watch it at some point over the past week...
Admittedly, her original version of the track deserves it's own post, so I'm a bit remorseful that I waited until a noteworthy cover comes along to post her version. By no means is Stephen's cover (below) anywhere near as powerful as the original, but it's a really interesting re-imagination of Hello...

Where Adele's vocal range takes the cake on the original, Stephen adds a rock element to the track that is really intriguing. I've posted a few tracks of his and with each track I'm gaining more of an appreciation for his music. Great artists grow on you and he's doing everything he can to be memorable. Keep him in mind for breakout artist of 2016 and keep it locked here for anything new he puts out...#StephenSwartz
Photo Credit: YouTube

Videos of the Week September 25th

A whole lot of randomness this week with a few late night highlights leading the way. First let me say thank you to Radio 1 for continuing to surprise us with interesting cover versions of tracks. First it was Sam Smith and Disclosure covering Drake, not Chvrches covering Bieber. Any time songs are able to be reimagined in a live setting by talented people, we all win. Speaking of we all win, how bout Bernie Sanders' prospects of being elected. We all wish he were getting more press, so I would have been remiss if I hadn't included Colbert's promo for his show this week (#FeelTheBern).

In other news, I appreciated the vibrant augmented reality style of Tiesto and Don Diablo's new video for Chemicals. I'm having a really hard time moving on from the track, which isn't a bad thing. Also, did anyone get a bit nostalgic with the Keenan and Kel Good Burger throwback skit? Yea, it was pretty stupid humor at the time, but it succeeded in making me reminisce. And last, but definitely not least, who else is pumped for the Angry Birds movie? As a recovered Angry Birds perfectionist, I'll admit to being skeptical of it being able to be translated into a movie. Then I noticed Danny McBride, Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader and Key were all voices in the movie and excitement prevailed. Let's just hope the script lives up to the hype...#AngryBirdsMovie
Tiesto & Don Diablo - Chemicals (Video)

Keenan and Kel Reunite for Good Burger Sketch on Fallon

Chvrches Covers Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean?”

Stephen Colbert Puts Everyone on Bern Notice

Angry Birds Movie Teaser Trailer

Image Credit: YouTube

Sam Smith & Disclosure Cover Drake's Hotline Bling

I'm struggling with a bit of an existential crisis tonight as a result of the video below. By now you're all keenly aware of my affinity for both Drake and Sam Smith, so you're most likely nodding your head in empathy for what I'm going through right now. Then, you throw in a Disclosure cameo on the production just for good measure and the result is a more than a little tough to process.

I'll put it this way, it didn't matter what the end result was of Sam and Disclosure's cover of Hotline Bling, there's no possible way it was going to live up to my expectations. Full disclosure (no pun intended), I wasn't a huge fan of the original version of Hotline Bling, so the cover was already set up to fail. Given, it was a live cover, which requires a good amount of prep and thought, but the lounge feel on the instrumental was a bit vanilla. Sure, Sam brought his usual sweet vocals, but it was missing the punch and exclamation that he usually brings to songs. Let's just call this one interesting and move on, cool?...#HotlineBling

Photo Credit: YouTube

Ever Wondered What Reggae Frank Ocean Sounds Like?

Have you ever listened to someone cover another artist and thought to yourself, "I never would have ever imagined liking this track as much as I did the original." Especially when you're talking about one of the best R&B vocalists in the game like Frank Ocean, as the covering artist you've got a snowball's chance in hell to match the original. BUT MØ, with the help of Major Lazer, did exactly that. Together they flipped Lost into a dreamy, reggae ballad, offering a complete 180 degree shift in sound from the original while maintaining the same quality. To put things in context, the song has been posted on Soundcloud for a few days and already has well over 700,000 plays. Again, no small feat and further confirmation that they did everything they could to give Frank's version a shiny new take...#LostCover

Major Lazer - Lost feat. MØ (Frank Ocean cover)

Ellie Goulding Just Owned Hozier's Take Me to Church

Wow...plain and simply WOW! It's hard to imagine anyone on earth singing Take Me to Church as well as Hozier did on the original. Then Ellie Goulding took to the mic and blessed the track with her raspy vocals, providing a new take on a modern day classic. It's most interesting to how two different vocal deliveries and pronunciations on words throughout the track create a completely different listening experience. My only question is, where's the duet? I mean Sam Smith and John Legend made it happen, why can't Hozier and Ellie Goulding get together?...#TakeMeToChurch

Ellie Goulding - Take Me to Church (Hozier Cover)

Videos of the Week February 27th

Let's call it a "memorable" week for videos with a fun mix of new stuff, creative stuff and even a few covers. Kanye leads the way in the new stuff section with his debut of All Day at the Brit 2015 Awards. The track is chalked full of energy, but lyrically it's just a bunch of chest puffed out yelling. Hopefully there are more thoughtful tracks like Only One on his album, I've missed that side of 'Ye.

If you haven't listened to Big Sean's new album, you really are missing out. Skyscrapers is a stand out, but there's a lot more too. Ed Sheeran is a boss, so it only makes sense he remixed CoCo. Similarly, Fallon and Xtina nailed more than a few impressions, including a spot on one of Britney Spears by Ms. Aguilera herself. And last, but not least, a bit of novelty for the week. Kudos to the on fleek video editing by papakilatube for matching the Barney visuals to Straight Outta Compton...#Barney
Big Sean - Skyscrapers (Video)

Ed Sheeran - I'm in Love With the CoCo (Cover)

Kanye Performs All Day at 2015 Brit Awards

Jimmy Fallon & Christina Aguilera Play Wheel of Musical Impressions

Barney With Attitude - Straight Outta Compton

Photo Credit: Vevo

"You've Got to Show Me Love" Gets a Modern Facelift

Too many times original versions of songs are completely neglected when someone decides to take a swing at a cover version. Very seldom does an artist truly make a cover version their own by transforming the track into something fresh despite sounding familiar. Before I get to the new version, I'm going to take a quick trip in the time machine to 1993 when Robin S came up with the timeless dance classic Show Me Love. If you're not old like me it may be a new song, but this is a glimpse of what 90s pop sounded like...

Having the original fresh in mind, it's clear to see how much Sam Feldt deviated from the original version. It took me the better part of a minute to realize that his version was a cover of the original, which was an awesome mid-listen revelation. If you're not familiar with Sam Feldt, he's a name that's frequently bandied about in Tropical House circles. If you listen close enough to the birds chirping in the background and the vibrant synths, you'll understand why he's associated with that sub-genre. The vocals are what stood out to me, but the sprinkles of chill house mixed throughout to give the song a modern feel. Love it when I get to hear a re-imagined version of an old favorite from decades ago...#ShowMeLove

Sam Feldt - Show Me Love

Nobody Can Do it Like Aaliyah...but BANKS Came Close

Every time an artist covers a famous Aaliyah track I get an immediate urge to go back and cycle through my favorites from her. It all began with Back & Forth and then she hooked up with Timbaland to make tracks like We Need a Resolution and Are You That Somebody?. She will always be tightly associated with my mental model of what 1990s R&B sounded like. If you need a refresher, check the original video for Are You That Somebody? (below)...

Since Aaliyah had such a distinct style, artists have been reluctant to cover her music over the years. This week, BANKS took on the tall task of tackling one of her most well know tracks. The smartest decision she made was choosing to go the acoustic route with the cover. It proves that in order to equal great, you have to be great in your own right. That's exactly what BANKS showed as she went toe to toe with the original vocally. Especially if you were an Aaliyah fan, give this one a listen because BANKS in the real deal Holyfield...#BANKS

BANKS - Are You That Somebody (Acoustic Aaliyah cover)

Timeflies Conquers Pompeii

I tell you what, Timeflies is making a pretty convenient argument that remixing other well-known singles in a unique way might be all you need to be successful as an artist. I say that with two caveats:
1) they also are capable of making their own great music, so they aren't just a one trick pony and
2) their unique blend of Hip Hop and pop isn't easy to duplicate when remixing non-Hip Hop songs. Plus, Cal can sing, rap and perform to the camera like he does every Tuesday (below)...

Did they do it better than Bastille? No, I wouldn't go that far, but I will concede that they made the song likeable in a completely different way. What was originally a high-yield, pop-rock ballad, is now a fun, sing-songy winter anthem. It seems all too perfect to match the general melancholy sentiment caused by the brisk winter with original chord progression from Pompeii. Did I catch a "snowpacalypse" somewhere in there too?...#AllTheWay

Timeflies - Pompeii

Ellie Goulding Covers the Hell Out of Justin's Mirrors

Man just when you thought Justin Timberlake couldn't be topped at his own ballad, here comes Ellie Goulding outta nowhere. Whoever at BBC One was instrumental in making this happens deserves an extraordinary amount of dap. For added benefit, check the in-studio video below of the performance...oh and mind the three backup singers who helped it out...
The definition of a cover is taking a great song and making it your own. While I wouldn't say Ellie transformed it into something magical, she sure as hell put her stamp on his with her angelic voice. Now we get to wait for Justin to either react in admiration or call her up for a collabo. Selfishly I hope we get the latter...#Mirror

Found at Fistintheair.com

Ellie Goulding - Mirrors (Justin Timberlake cover)

Mac Miller is Known For His Bright Eyes

Bravo to @macmiller for stepping outside the norm for a minute right quick to cover @brighteyesband's First Day of my Life. I had to look up the original from back in 2005, so don't feel bad for not recognizing the track below.

All things considered, Mac did his thing in covering the song. His harmony isn't perfect, but what do you expect for a lyricist? I'm of the thinking that he deserve some daps & lbs for his vocal showing on the cover version. It's a pretty chill rendition, so if you're in a mellow mood and need something to cool out to, this is what I'd prescribe. #MusicPills

Mac Miller - First Day of My Life (Bright Eyes Cover)

Ellie Goulding Gets High on The Weeknd

Rarely do cover versions of great tracks come anywhere near the quality of the original. That's why @elliegoulding's version of @theweekndxo's High For You came through the speakers like a breath of fresh mountain air. If you're wondering where the comparison comes from, below is the original version of the track that was featured on The Weeknd's House of Balloons mixtape...

While The Weeknd's version is undeniably soulful and dramatic, Ellie's uniquely melodic harmony is addicting. Equally important to the success of the cover is the influence @xaphoonjones provided behind the boards. The keyboard work he put in on the instrumental is mellow and funky at the same time, which perfectly compliments the vocals.

Right now I'm at a point now where I'm wishing I had more of Ellie's music because her voice has a distinctly beautiful tone. Don't fall behind like me, it's never cool to catch on after the sophomore album...#ByThenItsPop

Ellie Goulding - High For You (prod by Xaphoon Jones)(Weeknd Cover)

Javier Colon Covers Adele's Someone Like You (Live)

For the first time in quite a while I attended a concert that wasn't marked by high energy craziness (i.e. deadmau5, volbeat, ratatat, LCD Soundsystem). Instead, it was an intimate, acoustic setting where three talented individuals took the stage with not much more than a guitar and a piano. I'm going to keep my commentary short today because a more long winded review of the concert is going to follow in the next week when I'm able to get all of the media posted. I rarely let the cat out of the bag before doing a thorough review, but when @javstwtr covers @officialadele on stage for the first time and does a solo acoutic rendition of her hit Someone Like You, I'm willing to break protocol.

I'd consider it one of the many highlights of the show and a welcome surprise as part of the three song encore. I don't need to dress it up at all, the only thing I'm really urging you to do is press play below and give it a listen. Absolutely amazing and something that I was fortunate to witness in person...#Speechless

Javier Colon Covers Adele's Someone Like You

Feel free to check out Javier's new album title Come Through For You on iTunes

Sam Tsui & Christina Grimmie - Just a Dream (Nelly Cover)

Having gotten now over 7.5 million views, you could call these two a mini-YouTube sensation with their cover of Nelly's hit Just a Dream. For being a "viral" video, it's pretty well put together with the screen sectioned in the multiple windows with both @samueltsui and @therealgrimmie providing the vocals with the keys and beat sample also pictured.

It's a toss up between Christina and Sam as to who has gained the most notoriety on the internet, but both have become extremely successful in their own right. It must be nice to be Sam Tsui, living large as an undergrad at Yale as well as a YouTube sensation with over 24,000 twitter followers. Not too bad, but Christina is listed at the 51st most famous musician on the internet at the age of 16, with multiple hundred thousand view YouTube covers and over 30,000 Twitter followers. Both insanely talented and adept at using the internet as a vehicle for gaining exposure, check out their duet below...

Sam Tsui & Christina Grimmie - Just a Dream (Nelly Cover)

|Download