Since attracting the world’s attention with the left-field smash “I Try” around the turn of the millennium, Macy Gray has been trying mightily to achieve a more lasting success, admirably without ever relinquishing her trademark wackiness. Covered, her first album since 2010’s guest-laden The Sellout, came out this week, and it finds the raspy-voiced R&B-popsters applying her eccentricities to covers of songs by Metallica, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, and more. Last night on Conan, she gave a horn-spackled piano-pop rendition of My Chemical Romance’s bouncy glam-punk sing-a-along “Teenagers.” Gray took the stage with wildly upswept hair and a sparkly avocado-green gown, and she was backed by not only an eight-piece band (!) but also, on the last couple of “Hey Jude”-style choruses, some actual kids. “Teenagers” sounds weirdly out of time here, but if you’re into either 2007’s The Black Parade original or singer-actress Gray’s flamboyant stylings, her version is definitely worth a watch. Even if she can’t say “shit” on TV.
