Lorde puts a modern spin on Talking Heads‘ famed cover of Al Green’s 1974 song “Take Me to the River” for the compilation Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, which is rolling out individual tracks before a complete release later this year.
In a note accompanying the song, Lorde recalled hearing “Take Me to the River” for the first time as a 12-year-old in New Zealand when her mom played her a poor-quality YouTube clip. “I felt a portal open between me and the screen,” she said. “Humor, lust, rhythm and ritual course through me. I don’t understand what I’m feeling, but I do understand that the band in the grainy video live with the same strangeness that I do. My pains tingle. My insides are replaced.”
The artist said she recorded “River” in Los Angeles as an “interpretation of that pixellated spiritual experience. We did it fast. I didn’t let myself tidy it up too much. It had to feel young and imperfect, the peeling posters, the jaw of acne. It’s beyond a great honor to be a part of this compilation. In doing so, I am reaching back through time and pinning something to that kid’s wall.”
Everyone’s Getting Involved has already been teased with covers from Paramore and Teezo Touchdown, while BADBADNOTGOOD, Blondshell, the Cavemen., Chicano Batman featuring Money Mark, DJ Tunez, El Mató a un Policía Motorizado, girl in red, Jean Dawson, Kevin Abstract, the Linda Lindas, Miley Cyrus, the National and Toro y Moi have also contributed to the album. The project was assembled by production company A24, which restored Stop Making Sense last year and returned it to theaters.
Meanwhile, sources confirm Lorde is hard at work in New York on her new studio album, which will be the follow-up to 2021’s Solar Power.
