Every year, right around Christmas, the Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche likes to keep himself amused by covering one of the year’s biggest pop songs. Last year, it was Sia’s “Chandelier.” And this year, as it turns out, it’s Drake’s truly inescapable smash “Hotline Bling.” Lerche’s version is chipper and brittle, and it sounds a whole lot like the ’80s techno-pop that rose up in the wake of New Order. Below, listen to the cover and read what Lerche has to say about it.

Lerche writes:

Produced, mixed and mastered by Matias Téllez at Skogen Studio. Cover image by Paal Strand.

What the world needs now, is not yet another cover of Hotline Bling, sweet lord. But there’s no other huge song of 2015 I had wanted to sing more than Drake’s irrational, wounded instant classic. So deal with it, and I’ll at least spare you any further analysis, except to say it’s a truly magnetic piece of music. My version was produced, recorded and mixed by Matias Tellez (Hotline Bling is one of his favorite songs of the year too) last night in Bergen, Norway in a mere 10 dark hours. At the end of the night we were quite fried, borderline hallucinating, and a nod to Milton Nascimento’s immortal “Clube Da Esquina No 2″ snuck into the outro. I believe this is the sixth annual Christmas cover I share with my dear followers and fans, who continue to be spirited, loyal, engaging and full of wonder as our paths cross out there, on and off stage, in various spheres and in the songs themselves. Thank you for listening, caring and sharing my music where you are. It matters to me. Everything does. Here’s to yet another year that hopefully, despite terrifying, dark forces seeking to corrupt and confuse, will see us inspire each other to even greater heights, above, beyond.

Happy holidays & thanks for listening.

All the best,
-SL

Lerche used to debut these covers on Stereogum. You could say that he used to call us on our cell phone.