cool covers

This is apparently the week in which my new faves cover my old faves.

I was pleasantly surprised last week to learn that a favorite artist of mine, Fever Ray (half of the Swedish duo The Knife), decided to record a version of "Mercy Street," the classic track from one of my all-time favorites, Peter Gabriel. As haunting as the original but with a distinctly newer electro flavor, the cover earned an instant five-star rating on my iTunes collection. (That's Fever Ray in the image above, by the way...not sure why she's dressed like a monkey for this one, but that's the shot for the new single. In general I find it simpler to just nod and smile when it comes to her outfits!)

Then today I found out that another one of my faves, Robyn (who you can listen to me gush about here), recently covered the incomparable Björk at a ceremony honoring the Icelandic chanteuse for her winning of the 2010 Polar Music Prize. To make things more perfect, it's my very favorite Björk song, "Hyperballad," which I must have listened to a thousand times my freshman year in college.

Without further ado, here are the new takes on two stellar musical creations. ∞

Mercy Street by Fever Ray