Watch Christine And The Queens’ Stunning Cover Of Neil Young’s “Heart Of Gold”
Héloïse Adelaïde Letissier, better known to most of us as Christine And The Queens, has been quarantining in Paris these past few months, and she’s been posting occasional videos of herself covering songs like Travis Scott’s “Highest In The Room” and the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights.” For her latest cover, Christine has taken on a hit song from a very different era: Neil Young’s classic 1972 soul-wrecker “Heart Of Gold.”
These recent Christine And The Queens covers have been cool for a lot of reasons. She’s a powerful singer and a weighty presence, and she’s also been totally reimagining these songs — taking them apart and rebuilding them in her own image. For “Heart Of Gold,” she’s transformed the acoustic ramble into a hungry, synthy torch song, full of little UK drill bass-wobbles and multi-tracked choral vocals. This is not, in other words, your standard acoustic-guitar quarantine cover.
In the accompanying video, we see Christine singing “Heart Of Gold” in what looks like a very nice and spacious room. But we don’t see all the studio work that went into assembling the cover. There must’ve been a lot of studio work. Check out the cover and the original “Heart Of Gold” below.
Christine And The Queens’ La Vita Nuova EP is out now on Because Music. Fun fact: All three of the songs that Christine has covered during quarantine — “Highest In The Room,” “Blinding Lights,” “Heart Of Gold” — have been #1 singles in the US.