ITT: We discuss who performs a song better

[Whitey McTeeth]

Jeff Buckley for the win on Kick Out the Jams.

[verb_to_trust]

I honestly can't choose:

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show

[elliseamos]

Lucero's take gets my vote. But I didn't know the song or Jawbreaker before this. Thanks.

[Jorge]

I thought that Slobberbone version of "To Love Somebody" was appalling. And I love that song. My favorite version is by Ray LaMontagne.

[LetMeSleep]

I thought that Slobberbone version of "To Love Somebody" was appalling. And I love that song. My favorite version is by Ray LaMontagne.

Would that be the version with Damian Rice?

[Jorge]

I haven't heard the one with Damien Rice. He does a good version of it by himself, just him and an acoustic guitar. Guy's got a great voice.

The Slobberbone rendition felt a little too 90s alternative-rock-y, and I don't think that sound suits the song.

[LetMeSleep]

Yeah he has got a good voice but I've never really clicked with his stuff. All the pieces are there but they don't go together for me.
And it's a pity you don't hear what I hear in the slobberbone version. Love it.

[elliseamos]

I thought that Slobberbone version of "To Love Somebody" was appalling. And I love that song. My favorite version is by Ray LaMontagne.

i'm looking it up now. thanks, platypus.

[Jorge]

"Knives Out"

Radiohead:

Brad Mehldau Trio:

They're so different that it almost feels inappropriate to compare them in terms of who performs it "better", but I really love listening to them back-to-back and seeing where they each take the song. These days I'm getting more out of the Brad Mehldau Trio version, but that may also be because I've listened to the original so much.

[Kevin Davis]

I really love listening to them back-to-back and seeing where they each take the song.

A few years ago I made a Frank Sinatra/Miles Davis mix--a bunch of standards interpreted by both artists, sequenced back to back. It was a lot of fun to listen to (though choosing who did the better "It Never Entered My Mind" was impossible). At this point you could probably make a Radiohead/Mehldau one to run the length of a disc--in addition to "Knives Out," he's also done "Exit Music," "Everything in Its Right Place," "Paranoid Android," and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," and maybe some others live that I haven't run across.

[Kevin Davis]

And while we're on the topic, I like Mehldau's "Everything in Its Right Place" a lot better than Radiohead's.