Lissie - Covered Up With Flowers (EP)

Lissie - Named Best New Solo Artist of 2010 by Paste - a call with which we wholeheartedly agree - the Rockford, IL roots/pop performer collects five covers from Lady Gaga to Metallica to Kid Cudi for this exotic and diverse EP...we caught Lissie at a live show this summer and were simply floored at how much she'd matured from coffeehouse folk ingénue into a charismatic and confident performer who delights in shaking things up // Release: Covered Up With Flowers (November 8, Fat Possum) // Sounds like: a lot of fun, actually...we can forget any rigid typecasting as Lissie's powerhouse vocals and adventurous creative spirit turns a track like Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" into a swelling, soulful trip of raw energy -- no suprise that she went through a seriously cosmic Dead Head phase in her youth...

Quote: "I am playing rock 'n' roll but taking all the influences of all the music I've ever heard in my entire life, whether I consciously know that I'm doing it. I'd call it rock 'n' roll that's got a good heart but is rough around the edges." // What we like: in the hands of someone else, we might think that the Kid Cudi rap cover "Pursuit of Happiness" might be either precious or pretentious -- here's it's definitely neither...with a sharp kick of spurs to the midsection, Ga-Ga's "Romance" morphs into a rowdy, galloping Fleetwood Mac-styled anthem...we think Nick Cave and Joe South would approve of Lissie's takes on "The Ship Song" and "The Games People Play"...

Lissie - "Nothing Else Matters" (from Covered In Flowers)

Lissie - "Bad Romance" (from Covered In Flowers)