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I continue to be a big fan of Jimmy Eat World simply because they're consistent in their earnestness. I admit that I've been hoping they'd go a little darker and make the kind of excellent album that 2004's Futures was at some point again in their career -- that hasn't happened yet -- but their pop sensibilities are tough to deny.

To wit and submitted for your approval or disgust, here they are doing a cover of Taylor Swift's insufferable ode to the latest guy she feels wronged by. So can they change even a worthless song like this into something decent? I'll let you be the judge.

Here's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

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I always loved the original version of this song and Amanda Palmer's live cover of it is equally terrific.

Here she is doing Yaz's In My Room.

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I realize this song has been used and overused, but it's still a singularly extraordinary cover. It was also the soundtrack to a pretty bad little breakdown I had at around three in the morning overnight. Not that it was playing or anything; I just woke up with it in my head and everything sort of went downhill from there.

So here it is.

Gary Jules -- Mad World.

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One hell of a group covering one hell of a song.

Here's the Civil Wars doing Portishead's Sour Times.

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Late last year, Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars of the Replacements reunited to record an EP of covers called Songs for Slim -- with the proceeds going to their former bandmate Slim Dunlap, who recently suffered a stroke.

Yeah, it's not new original material, but it's still great to hear the Mats back together after more than two decades -- regardless of the unfortunate turn of events that led to the reunion.

Here's the Replacements doing Gordon Lightfoot's I'm Not Sayin'.

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One of those covers that's a case of the perfect band doing the perfect song.

Here's Mother Love Bone's cover of the 1972 Argent semi-classic Hold Your Head Up.

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A damn cool cover for the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge -- here's My Chemical Romance doing Pulp's Common People.

Happy holiday week, kids.

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Wow. This was a great -- and heavily covered -- song to begin with, but this version just goes right through you and you feel every second of it.

Here's Carrie Manolakos doing Radiohead's Creep, live.

I've probably got about another 36 hours of combined child-watching and project-cramming but then things finally kind of start going back to normal.

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I'm not sure what to make of this. On the one hand, it's got the flawlessly lovely voice of the great Tracey Thorn -- on the other hand, it kind of doesn't need to exist, especially since while Thorn is a better singer, she just doesn't have the post-orgasmic vocal fry of young Romy Madley-Croft.

Still, it's worth a listen and a discussion.

Here's Tracy Thorn covering the xx's Night Time.

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So the new Soundgarden track seems to have been taken down by Hollywood records everyplace it's been posted -- more smart thinking on the part of proprietary-psychotic record execs. With that, we'll move on to a track sure to ignite a little healthy debate.

Macy Gray just released an entire album of covers -- some kind of expected, some not much at all. This falls into the latter category -- and to be honest I'm still not sure what I think of it.

I keep coming back, though, to the idea that it's ballsy as hell to turn a Metallica song into a kind of Bond theme.

Here's Nothing Else Matters.

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What to make of a 15-year-old girl who's now famous for reinterpreting other people's stuff -- in other words, doing covers? I guess if you have the kind of soulful and hauntingly lovely voice Birdy does, you can get away with it.

Here's two from her. Above it's her cover of Phoenix's 1901 -- below, Bon Iver's Skinny Love.

Listening Post: Bonus Mau5-Track Edition

One of these days Deadmau5 is going to do a full movie soundtrack and I'm gonna be a very happy lad. Here now, two atmospheric tracks from Joel Zimmerman. One is an instrumental cover of Radiohead's Codex, the other is a quickie piece of music that he's often used as an intro for other songs live -- Get in the Cart, Pig.

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Singer Simon Collins is the son of Phil Collins, and to listen to him you honestly feel like you've either entered some kind of time warp or have stumbled across a treasure trove of long-lost Genesis B-sides. In other words, he sounds just like his father.

For the most part Collins's music is nothing exceptional, which isn't to say it's bad -- just a little bland. But as a supposed salute to his dad, he did recently record his own version of a classic Genesis song. It's not one of the major hits, but it's always been one of my personal favorites -- a song I really loved when I was growing up -- and so I think it's worth putting up here and soliciting reaction from you nice people.

Here's Simon Collins doing Keep It Dark, originally from the 1981 Abacab album.

Listening Post: Nostalgia Edition

Sorry, folks, but this one can't wait. I had no idea Duncan Sheik recorded and just released an entire album of 80s covers and for that I'm kicking myself. But then again maybe it's better I didn't know because my reaction when I came across those 12 songs was nothing short of overwhelming. I love Sheik anyway and have since the start of his career, and his choice and performance of covers is pretty much legendary at this point, but this -- this just blows me away.

Here now, just a few tracks from the album.

Talk Talk's Life's What You Make It:



Howard Jones's What Is Love?:



The Psychedelic Furs' The Ghost in You:



Also on the album, Shout, Stripped, Love Vigilantes, Kyoto Song and a whole lot more.

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Furthering my firmly held belief that all the best music these days is coming out of Scandinavia -- particularly when it comes to female singers -- here's an unbelievably cool song from Monica Birkenes, who performs under the stage name "Mr. Little Jeans."

She took the anthemic sprawl of Arcade Fire's The Suburbs and thoroughly transformed it. The result is something lush, lovely and oh-so-sexy.

I can't stop listening to this track, and if you're interested in downloading it you can find it here.

Here's The Suburbs.

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There's nothing about this that doesn't rule.

Here's the Foo Fighters doing Prince's Darling Nikki at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas in L.A. a few years back.

Happy Friday, kids.

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BT.

A gorgeous Psychedelic Furs classic.

Say no more.

Here's The Ghost in You.

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You know me -- I'm always impressed by surprising and interesting covers.

This is one of the better new bands out there right now -- A Silent Film -- doing Underworld's Born Slippy.

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These guys already scored one of the best covers ever with their absolutely mind-blowing version of Running Up That Hill; this rendition of another 80s classic is a bit more by-the-numbers, but the original stands as one of my all-time favorite songs, so it's worth popping up.

Here's Placebo, doing Nik Kershaw's Wouldn't It Be Good?

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Probably one of the most surprising and, ironically, original covers in recent memory -- and a song just worked to the hilt in the poetic final sequence of Donnie Darko.

Here's Gary Jules's stunning take on the Tears for Fears classic, Mad World.