Covered is a feature where we examine the merits of various cover songs, debating whether or not they capture the spirit and intent of the original, if the cover adds anything new, and whether or not it perhaps surpasses the original.  If we fail on those counts, at the very least we may expose you to different versions of great songs you hadn’t heard before. 

This week we’re going to bridge between an artist we examined last week and a group whose new album we’ll review tomorrow.  First, we’ll examine the original from the new artist:

It’s easy to see why “No One’s Gonna Love You” was one of the singles from Cease to Begin.  It’s a gorgeous and delicate ballad, with beautiful crystalline guitars, and a soaring melody which is a perfect showcase for Ben Bridwell’s voice.  It’s pretty much right in Band of Horses’s wheelhouse, the kind of song that people would suggest when selling the potential of the band.  Sorry for the quick description, but the qualities of the song are pretty self-evident upon first listen, and there’s no real need for further analysis on my part.

When examining the tracklist to Cee Lo’s album The Lady-Killer, I wondered if this could possibly be a cover of the Band of Horses tune, and much to my surprise it was.  Upon first impression, one wouldn’t expect there to be much common ground between the two artists, but of course Cee Lo has never been one to constrain himself with musical limits (see the previous “Covered” with Gnarls Barkley’s version of “Reckoner”).  Cee Lo says “Fuck that” to your narrow-minded expectations (of course, not to be confused with another popular statement he made that year.)

The thing that I love best about this cover is that instead of downplaying the potentially saccharine sentiment of the song, it goes in completely the other direction and amplifies them to the hilt.  “No one’s gonna love you more than I do”?  Let’s make sure you get the message by adding huge swelling strings!  And the basic hip-hop beat programming works surprisingly well with the music too.  And the final confirmation of what makes this a really good cover: I’m sure there were plenty of people that bought Cee Lo’s album without realizing that this song was actually done by a semi-obscure indie rock band.

And to top things off, Band of Horses decided to return the favor by doing their own cover of Cee Lo’s “Georgia”.  It’s quite the mutual appreciation society that they’ve developed.