The Bad Plus Releases All-Covers Album

The Bad Plus: It's HardIconoclastic bass-piano-drums jazz trio The Bad Plus – known for its unexpected cover versions of songs – has released its 11th album, It’s Hard, an album exclusively composed of covers.

The record, featuring Reid Anderson on bass, showcases the trio’s take on a wide variety of pop, prog rock, country, and alt-rock tunes. According to NPR’s First Listen, the band’s musical intent has always appeared unchanging, seeming “to be foremost about applying an original dialect to any song, whether generated internally or absorbed, processed and rearranged.”

On the record, the group covers songs by everyone from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Prince to Johnny Cash, Peter Gabriel and Crowded House.

Here’s the group’s take on Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones”:

It’s Hard is available on CD, vinyl (Oct. 7) and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).

It’s Hard Track List:

  1. Maps
  2. Games Without Frontiers
  3. Time After Time
  4. I Walk the Line
  5. Alfombra Magica
  6. The Beautiful Ones
  7. Don’t Dream It’s Over
  8. Staring at the Sun
  9. Mandy
  10. The Robots
  11. Broken Shadows

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