I love Joanna Newsom. I think shes a great musician and a particularly brilliant lyricist. But while Joanna‘s voice has become more “palatable” to untrained ears on her later albums, it can be distracting for some to get past, particularly if they’re trying to take in the lyrics.
So I like recommending this cover, sometimes. It's very good and the vocals are way more legible so my hope is that it might help a listener actually follow the lyrics rather than leaving them like "wtf is this birdsong?".
https://youtu.be/81f0bMRDpLk
I LOVE weird covers and could post a bunch here but I'm going to try to stick to just a few here.
"THE MOOG COOKBOOK" is an incredible two person band that did covers of classic songs with moog synthesizers. My favorite "cover band". I highly recommend listening to both of their full albums, but my favorite track has to be their cover of Weezers Buddy Holly
https://youtu.be/SHPkgIPDfcE
https://youtu.be/xIH2yJtzET4
(A live set from the 90's)
My whole life I've been a fan of accapella music like Barbershop Quartet. While I cant stomach modern styled stuff like Pentatonix, occasionally a performance stands out to me.
This cover of Hotel Califonia is incredible, when the guy puts on his shades right before diving into the ending guitar solo, I think that's just so fucking cool. The ending solo melts my face.
https://youtu.be/zVlCtaDMnrw
Gonna squeeze one more accapella thing in here. This is less a "cover" and more a "performance of an old standard". This performance was the winner of that years national annual barbershop quartet contest, and it would have received an unprecedented perfect score if not for an automatic 1 point deduction for using a song that references religion. Is it perfect? Listen and judge for yourself. I think it's pretty fucking close.
https://youtu.be/u7mGjSZpdpk
Last one. I like this version so much more than the original and sometimes I sing this at full force when I'm home alone.
https://youtu.be/5UkbPLnt-JY