Give me some “new” original songs that sound like old songs. They don’t actually have to be “new” songs, but they should be original songs, not covers, that sound like they belong in an earlier era than the one in which they were released. Any style, be it rock, pop, R&B, country, whatever.
Examples:
Bakar: Hell N Back
Ceelo: Fuck You
The Greenhornes: Underestimator
Smash Mouth: Walkin’ On the Sun
I think the obvious one is Uptown Funk. When I first started hearing it everywhere I initially though it was an '80s song that had suddenly become popular for some reason.
Watching the video, it looks like the '80s feel extends to the video as well, with a 1980s era Lincoln Town Car prominently featured.
There are quite a few acts whose whole schtick is recreating the style of an earlier era. Like the Squirrel Nut Zippers
or the Stray Cats
Sloan has a lot of songs that would sound great on your favorite classic rock station:
All of the songs from Fitz and the Tantrums’ first studio album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces (2010), have a very 1960s Motown/soul feel.
The very first rock concert I ever went to was Sha Na Na.
Greta Van Fleet is a relatively new hard rock band, which sounds very much like vintage Led Zeppelin.
Won’t claim to be a fan of the song but it definitely has a retro sound to my ears.
An 80s song that sounds a couple decades older.
Night - Under the Moonlit Sky.
The whole album sounds like it could come from the 70s or 80s yet sounds really fresh.
Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love was written in 1979 but since is was written as a tribute to Elvis Presley, it sounds like it could have been written 20 years earlier.
When I first heard Bleeding Love, I was convinced it was a cover of something from 20 years earlier.
Would you accept a Nineties cover of a Thirties song, with the cover sounding like it’s from the early Twenties?
Caroline Polachek’s “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” (2019) sounds very 80’s owing largely to its Juno-60 synth. Polachek said:
And, man, I tried so hard to make this song feel less '80s, and it just refused. Every time we’d swap out the drum palette with something less old-school, it just lost the vibe. So we just had to admit it. Let it be who it wanted to be.
Two that I’ve found recently:
Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans
Doja Cat - Say So
Biff Rose - “Molly”
I remember thinking “Kokomo” was a 60s song that had suddenly become popular in the late 80s:
Veronica Falls released Bad Feeling in 2011 but it sounds like its right out of 1964.
Sara Bareilles - Gonna Get Over You
Kind of an “Olivia Newton John does doo-wop” vibe.
She & Him - I’ve Got Your Number, Son
The Heavy “How Ya Like Me Now”
Madcon “Beggin” (asside from the rap section)
sHeavy “Virtual Machine” is a very obvious not to Black Sabbath
