Cover songs aren’t usually our thing, but when a band offers up a cut as deep as Angel Olsen’s ‘Unfucktheworld’, then we quite literally couldn’t say no. This version comes from Oakland-based trio There’s Talk (Olivia Lee, Kellen Balla and Young Lee), who take Olsen’s blisteringly raw original performance and transform it into something that’s reverent, ethereal and simmering. We will say that those vocal melodies are essentially untouched, but rather than coming across as imitation, they act like a guiding light throughout the murky dreamy-pop arrangement.
This hymnal ambience has been constructed from hovering synths, celestial guitar lines and a bubbling production. In a way it reminds us of deep-sea exploration where the eerie stillness of the ocean floor’s darkness emphasises the true solitude of human existence. In the end, it’s just you and yourself, yet there’s something devastatingly beautiful about that connection to self.
Something that further grounds the emotional intensity of There’s Talk‘s cover is its origin story. Let’s take our minds back to the start of the covid-19 pandemic, a time where many of us were seeking solace and emotional release. Olivia Lee found her catharsis in Angel Olsen’s songwriting and so she began learning, playing and recording solo versions of ‘Unfucktheworld’. Fast forward a few years and those isolated tapes re-emerged as inspiration for There’s Talk. They gradually shaped a collective cover into this dreamlike, weightless and hazy end product.
With a final mix from Los Angeles’ Beau Sorenson, There’s Talk’s ‘Unfucktheworld’ is the rarest kind of cover. It pays respect to the source while carving out new contours of meaning, memory and vulnerability.
You can listen to this cover of ‘Unfucktheworld’ in our Shades of Pop playlist.
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