Covers: When Rockers Tried To Be Funny And Failed Miserably

The idea of an 'ironic' cover is though it's not to be taken seriously, the band has fun covering it and somehow makes it sounds fun and enjoyable, too. These rocker dudes simply just don't get it.


To be fair, their first two singles were at least listenable back when they were not overplayed to death, though I have no intention of checking out the whole album. But this Live Lounge cover, it's dreadful. Somehow, the lead singer succeeded in making it sound miserable. He seemed to try so hard to be funny I almost felt sorry for him. It's just totally unnecessary. For curiousity, you may take a listen but don't say I didn't warn you.

Switchfoot - Crazy In Love (Beyoncé Cover)
Whereas The Magic Numbers and Snow Patrol did a wonderful job on covering this, Switchfoot successfully ruined it. Totally boring & pointless. They didn't even try to make it sound interesting or anything. If you can make it to the end of the song, then bravo. And they did it for Yahoo! Music.
The real question here is: was there a Christian message among the lyrics of 'Crazy In Love'? There must be, otherwise they would not choose it, right?

Sights & Sounds: Beyoncé's Double Treats

Beyoncé's desperate. 'B'Day' didn't quite make an impact on critics and fans alike like expected, and although it's already certified 2x platinum, it's only halfway as much as 'Dangerously In Love'. Her supposed movie breakthrough ended up nowhere as Jennifer Hudson got all the spotlight/awards. Obviously, the sole purpose of a rerelease is because there's no more hitworthy materials, so new songs and bonus stuff need to be added to attract the record-buying public.
And for the rerelease of 'B'Day', Beyoncé works real hard. She has shot videos for every single track on the album. She even came to label mate Shakira for help in form of a Stargate-produced collaboration, and the music video made its way on music channels this week.

Beautiful Liar (dir: Jake Nava)

I was so excited when I knew Jake Nava was gonna work with her again. He's a brilliant pop music video director, without him, there's no 'Crazy In Love', 'Baby Boy' and 'Naughty Girl'. As I expected, the video's full of glossy, stylized eye candy. However, it could have been much better. Jake has never been much of a studio person, he's at his best when shooting on location. I assumed that because she was shooting a plethora of music videos, the label cut down on the budget, so the set designs looked poor and unimaginative. Imagine if they were really walking in a bamboo forest, or belly dancing in a real ancient cave. Anyway, the wildflowers-on-steel-pole scenes were cool and the sexy, sizzling Arabic dance routine at the end (which is also like a game of who's who!) is sexy as hell. Musically, at first the song didn't sound so impressive to me but now I think it's slowly making its way into my head. Did I mention they both look flawlessly gorgeous?

Download the video for Beautiful Liar in AVI format.

Upgrade U (Feat. Jay Z) (dir: Melina/Beyoncé)

Premiered the same day as 'Beautiful Liar'. This is a cliché-ridden one, with blinding blings, product placements, and flashy shots. Though the song's not remarkable to me (though being a Swiss Beatz production), the video should do well on MTV & BET, I guess. There's an interesting scene of her cross-dressing, trying to act all gangsta, mouthing Jay Z's verses (you know, for female empowerment, all that jazz). PETA will, however, call her and accuse her of abusing that baby reptile .

Download the video for Upgrade U in AVI format.

Apparently, the public (including me) is really getting too much of her. The hype is going to be saturated at some point, has she seen to that?. For now, she's just everywhere.


In other news:

My filehost, Snapdrive, now has a 1GB bandwidth limit every day, so if you can't download a file from it, it's probably because the limit is exceeded. In that case, you can come back and try again the next day.

Cover: Mika - Hips Don't Lie

First, let me just say that 'Grace Kelly' is a very addictive song. And 'Life In Cartoon Motion' is probably the first great pop album of 2007.

There you have it. Now, the main point of this post. To share a new Live Lounge cover that will peek your curiousity for sure. And traffic boost. Mostly the former one, though.

Here, clearly Mika doesn't take it seriously. He kept cracking up all the way throughout the take, he didn't care to memorize all the lyrics, and he was both Shakira and Wyclef Jean (low register at Wyclef's parts, and that sometime annoying falsetto at Shakira's). I'm not sure what to make out of this cover except that it's just fun to listen to. Like if you're, uhm, a big fan of the hit, you'll be terrorized by this version, otherwise, you will enjoy it and accept it as what it is.

This has been around for a while, but in case you haven't got it, here's your chance.


Mika - Hips Don't Lie (Shakira Cover)

Mika's MySpace


Something funny: I tried to google 'Mika' in Google Image search engine for a ready pic, and those are the results it came up with. I ended up cropping and uploading one myself.