As we put a bow on this year, let’s take a look back at the times where musical borders were crossed and our favourite artists put their spin on their heroes. Here are the best covers of 2017:
Indie88’s Best of 2017 is presented with the Samsung Galaxy Note8
Canadian folk singer Feist shared this Gord Downie cover the day of his passing earlier this year. “I send out this song with love, respect and gratitude in honour of Gord’s generosity of spirit,” she wrote in a Tweet. “I admired so much his honest way of communicating what he saw and the courage and conviction he searched with.”
Alvvays put out the highly-anticipated sophomore album Antisocialites earlier this year, and to celebrate Toronto-based Choir! Choir! Choir! covered the album’s lead title “In Undertow”.
Windsor, Ontario-based (by way of Sackville, NB) punk outfit Partner have been generating quite a bit of buzz on the heels of the arrival of their fantastic In Search of Lost Time LP. Lucy Niles, Josée Caron and Co. stopped by The House of Strombo in September to perform several of their own songs and a cover of AC/DC’s “Long Way To The Top.”
Leamington, Ontario’s second finest crop Matt Holubowski visited the Collective Arts Black Box to perform two songs from Solitudes, also bringing his stunning cover of Bon Iver classic, “Skinny Love”.
The Scottish synth-pop outfit left their mark on Tegan and Sara’s 10th anniversary of The Con‘ cover album.
After playing their cover of Ben E. King’s classic tune “Stand By Me” for years at their live shows, Hey Rosetta! finally got together to record the song officially while announcing a strong of farewell shows.
The Closner sisters, also known by their stage name Joseph, shared a cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” earlier this year. The hit song was released by Tears For Fears in 1985 via Songs from the Big Chair.
When Wolf Alice appeared at BBC Radio 1’s studio to perform a few songs, they also covered Green Day’s hit “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”
Portugal. The Man have shared a highly polished video of themselves performing “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” live off the floor, following their highly successful album Woodstock.
As part of The Tallest Man On Earth’s The Light In Demos project, Kristian Matsson covered his all-time favourite song by Canadian folk artist Joni Mitchell. Skip to 1:30 for the cover.
Australia’s Middle Kids put out their fantastic self titled EP earlier this year. Recently, the trio rearranged Blink 182’s 1999 power-pop rock song into a bittersweet, heart-wrenching ballad.
Florida-based Astronautalis showed their love for Toronto band PUP, sharing a cover of the boisterous single “DVP”.
Toronto jazz-trio turned international hip-hop collaborators BADBADNOTGOOD have shared a cover of Shauf’s “To You” this year and it’s a total delight.
We met up with Luke from The Dirty Nil last weekend, who performed a couple campfire style acoustic songs in the forest. Check out the session, where he performs “Sweet Revenge” by the legendary American country/folk singer-songwriter John Prine
The Montreal native Lief Vollebekk visited the Collective Arts Black Box earlier this year to perform tracks off his gorgeous album Twin Solitude, bringing with him a cover of Joni Mitchell’s classic Blue song “Case of You”.
- SEE ALSO: The 21 Best Albums of the Year (Best of 2017)
Stay tuned to Indie88.com over the coming weeks for our entire
Best of 2017 series. Up next: Best Movies of 2017 (Friday, December 16th)