Lykke Li – “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor Cover)
Do you ever think about how Lykke Li released an album called so sad, so sexy? A little on the nose, don’t you think? It’s certainly a succinct summation of Li’s signature vibe, the aesthetic she has ably applied to a classic cover song today.
Gloria Gaynor’s resilient disco anthem “I Will Survive,” a #1 smash in 1979, is one of the most-covered songs in pop music history. Everyone from Aretha Franklin to R.E.M. Kacey Musgraves to Cake has given it a spin. And now so has Lykke Li, who has pared down the arrangement to trembling vocals, flickering piano, and ghostly atmospherics that communicate a sense of hollowed-out nothingness. It’s pretty good, but the sense that it was expressly designed to be featured in a movie trailer is putting me off it a bit.
Your mileage may vary, so listen below.