S/D: Self-covers

Stipulation: the song must have been published much earlier in recorded format.

Julian Cope returning to his brilliant b-side Land Of Fear is what inspired this thread - well, that and all those Cardiacs shenanigans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfrZ2C8-LME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsQryPYtA3E

fried = best album cover art ever ?

quite possibly.

still have the full size poster that came with the vinyl edition of him in a lake with that turtle shell on looking like he believes he is a tesco supermarket.

Cardiacs is the only one I can think of where it is beneficial to the material. Jonathan Richman is the person most guilty of this and for a while there it seemed like he had two or three on every album. And he did some in a country style on a country album and some in a Spanish flamenco style for his Spanish album etc. I think he's even done some songs three times - "The Neighbours" is one. Some of them were not bad (the retread of "That Summer Feeling" is one I like) but it started to feel like album padding. Generally speaking I'm not enthusiastic about this except for the Cardiacs live albums which are pretty unique in concept, context and execution.

it's not a cover if you fucking wrote it!

Lou Reed and J. Spacemen have done this a fair amount

Not just the live albums - the various iterations of RES and Nurses Whispering Verses etc. I'd say the Seaside versions aren't really bettered by A Little Man, but NWV on Sing To God is a thing of wonder

Obviously, Squeeze doing this for copyright reasons was pretty funny

Universally awful

this is a S/D thread not a C/D thread m8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yPJWBo2aN0

Search:
Thomas Dolby - The Sole Inhabitant: Technically not a self-cover album but most of the songs here are drastically rearranged for a one-man show, and you don't really hear the audience. Basically it's him building the tracks up with their respective elements from scratch.

Sparks - Plagiarism & Two Hands, One Mouth: First is legit self-covers, not the most consistent of albums but a thoroughly entertaining one that foreshadows the Li'l Beethoven album and puts rest to former clunkers like "Putting Rabbits Into a Hat". None of the classics really eclipse the originals but they're often so different that they kinda work anyway. Mike Patton is a guest and does an awesome job when he appears. The other is a live album which does all the songs as just piano and voice (or synths on occassion). Hearing "Beat the Clock" with just one keyboard and one vocal line (no underlying beat!) is really something.

Susumu Hirasawa: He's done quite a few self-cover albums and they're all pretty great. Most artists when they get older will re-envision their energetic songs as being more laid back or intimate. Hirasawa takes them and amps them up to the point where they feel like they're going to collapse under their own weight. Most of the time the originals are pretty insane to begin with.

Falco - Symphonic: Not actually assembled nor released until he was long dead but this is one of the few self-cover albums (sourced partially from a live show) where nearly every song eclipses the original.

Gary Numan - Hybrid: Split between his recent material and his classic stuff like on Replicas or The Pleasure Principle, all either remixed or done in his new style. I'm guessing most people didn't dig this but I found it really solid. The new songs are great as well.

Destroy:
Mike Doughty - Super Bon Bon Sleepless etc. etc.: His covers of Soul Coughing tunes take out 75% of what was good about them in the first place - he does the samples himself, re-does all the drums with a computer, and hires a bassist but turns her way down in the mix. I've posted at length about this already so I'll just say that this album sounds like it's two decades old and it just came out this year!

Telex - Les Rhythms Automatique (??): I thought the intentional drollness of Telex was part of what was so appealing about them. It sorta doubles down on everything bad about Kraftwerk's "The Mix". Speaking of:

Kraftwerk - The Mix: I actually liked this one at first but the remakes really haven't held up over time. That said the amped up versions on Minimum-Maximum are incredible even if they're largely the same!

Devo - E-Z Listening Album: I mean this is basically a joke but people paid money for this thing.

Devo - E-Z Listening Album: I mean this is basically a joke but people paid money for this thing.

even as a devo fan, i did not get this. and having heard a few tracks on the recent reissue, i am glad. crap.

Ok fine lj I will just do destroys then

Destroy: that fucking go4 album

Destroy: that fucking go4 album

what .. 'return the gift' ?

i fuckin' love that album.

despite having the originals, this is the one i play the most.

i guess i just like the upfront production of it ..

Peter Hammill, The Love Songs (old songs reworked)
Peter Hammill, The Fall of the House of Usher (two different versions, recorded 1991 and 1999)

Prince does this from time to time. He did that re-recording of 'Extra Loveable' this year, which makes sense since the original recording was never released and who knows if the multi-tracks even exist, but it loses everything that's great about it. Wasn't into that 'Let's Go Crazy' re-make either.

otoh James Brown had some good ones, the version of 'Sex Machine' from the Dead on the Heavy Funk comp is tight as hell (totally different groove).

I thought this was going to be a thread about selfies used as album art.

Carl Craig did a couple of these on his Innerzone Orchestra album, making jazzy versions of his own "Bug in the Bassbin" and "At Les". The latter especially I think is pretty awesome, I like it more than the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boGszFpF6h0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oZc1a-58wg

DESTROY: Radiohead's second version of Morning Bell on Amnesiac.

Would Unplugged MTV concerts count as a re-recording? Some artists like Soda Stereo or say Clapton's Layla are wildly different from the source.

Amm also Search:

Aerosmith - Walk This Way

U2 and Sting have also re-recorded several songs on their catalogue.

And Mumford and Sons and Manu Chao even re-record the same songs over 10 times per album.

d: bryan ferry's album of jazz style covers.

^ similarly kylie's abbey road sessions

I actually like Gang of Four's Return the Gift. I mean, it in no way comes close to touching the originals, but I thought it was a fun document of their reunion period.

Killing Joke released the similar Duende which, by all accounts, was pretty needless.

I thought this one was lovely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-ybtw_1_Is

Destroy: Bon Jovi - This Left Feels Right

S: Oingo Boingo's re-recordings for Boingo Alive.

And Mumford and Sons and Manu Chao even re-record the same songs over 10 times per album.

I totally misread that at first and thought that Mumford and Sons recorded several songs with Manu Chao.

legitimate incitement to murder

See if you can spot this one

Archers of Loaf --> Eric Bachmann solo. 90s shouter slowly becoming heartbreaking decade by decade, I swear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7GKlkUW5A

May not count, but examples like the reinterpretations made by Dylan on his Rolling Thunder Revue are abundant.

Jason Molina recut a bunch of tracks as well -- e.g. "Be Your Own Guide" --> "Transmigration"

The Church did two albums worth; El Momento Descuidado & El Momento Siguiente -- but that might open up far too many "unplugged" sessions into the mix.

Tindersticks have done a bunch of these on their new album.