The best cover ever

Not counting some where the cover version is the most famous. Or ones that I'm forgetting right now. My favorite as of this moment in time.

The winner is Dinosaur Jr.'s cover of "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure!

What is it that makes this version so good? Who would have known that Robert Smith's melodic wobble would have translated well to J. Mascis' slacker moan? Even better, the jangly guitars of the original somehow sound just as good when distorted and played in J Mascis style. Plus, of course, this one has a Dino Jr. guitar solo (the best kind).

I think part of what makes it so good is that Dinosaur Jr. and the Cure are both about the same number of steps removed from punk, just in very different directions. The Cure took the whole British post-punk to pop new wave thing and ran with it, and Dinosaur Jr. were born out of the American hardcore thing that turned into the sort of 80s alternative thing that went on SST records (along with Dino Jr, the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets, etc). I think the steps removed thing is what makes "Just Like Heaven" seem so right as a Dino Jr. song.

Also, the video has puppets.

The Cure version

The Dinosaur Jr. version

I'm sure a lot of you (well, seeing as "a lot" of people don;t read this, that isn't true) know this already, but I've just been having a bit of a personal Dinosaur Jr. revival lately.