In 2018, the advertising geniuses at Snake Accident commissioned TV On The Radio to record their own version of the 1970s Carpenters hit “We’ve Only Just Begun” for a commercial for the asset management company Nuveen. Earlier in the campaign, the group apparently reached out to a variety of artists including Ariel Pink and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who each recorded their own take on the Carpenters classic. Now, the advertising group has made the rejected covers publicly available on SoundCloud, as Stereogum points out.
For his rendition, Ariel Pink stayed fairly true to the original, using twinkling synths and retro drum machines to play up the sincerity of his rendition. Will Oldham took things even further, with thin acoustic guitars and multi-tracked vocals that become a dead match for the ’70s song. Eventually, Oldham’s rendition erupts into a noisy ruckus with strings and electric guitars to rival some of his strongest Palace Music recordings.
Ariel Pink’s latest studio album Dedicated to Bobby Jameson was released in 2017 featuring the singles “Time to Live,” “Another Weekend,” and “Feels Like Heaven.” Oldham’s Songs of Love and Horror dropped in October 2018. Revisit our 2017 interview with Ariel Pink and check out his rendition of “We’ve Only Just Begun” below, along with Oldham’s and TV On The Radio’s.
