The Live Lounge album reaffirms an old problem, namely that good cover versions are hard to do, but that most bands think they're easy. Success is down to selection as much as execution. When Jeff Buckley took on Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, it wasn't the modern standard it has since become.
When Jos e Gonzalez recontextualised the Knife's Heartbeats, the original version was practically unknown. If you're tackling a song that's still hovering around radio playlists, however, then you'd better bring out the big guns. Alas, the big guns are conspicuous by their absence.
Good bands perform bad covers. Bad bands perform unspeakable ones. The one constant is a tin ear for great pop, rendering larger-than-life hits either too earnest (missing every conceivable point, Lemar peels the catsuit from the Darkness's I Believe in a Thing Called Love and outfits it in a tasteful sweater) or too gimmicky (the Automatic's witless, funkless version of Kanye West's Gold Digger cries out for swift and terrible retribution).
Time, then, to draw up some kind of charter governing cover versions. First, don't choose any song that's made the top 10 in the past 12 months. Second, only cover it if you're going to make it more interesting, not less.
Third, if your strategy consists of performing a brilliantly produced pop song in a frowny, acoustic fashion in the belief that this somehow makes it more meaningful, think again. Fourth, don't giggle halfway through. Finally, never, ever, under any circumstances attempt Hey Ya!
Let's slap a UN resolution on Jo Whiley and see what happens. Radio 1's Live Lounge is out on Sony BMG on Monday
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