Lambchop – “Golden Lady” (Stevie Wonder Cover)
Last month, Kurt Wagner announced the latest installment in Lambchop’s idiosyncratic career. After releasing This (is what I wanted to tell you) in the spring of 2019, Wagner figured they should forego any touring in favor of gathering the band to record a covers album where each member selected a song they wanted to interpret in the world of Lambchop. That resulted in TRIP, which is now a little under a month from coming out. So far, we’ve heard the band’s rendition of Wilco’s “Reservations,” and today they’ve shared another track.
This time around, Lambchop have selected Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady,” from 1973’s Innervisions. It was picked by Lambchop (and Wye Oak) drummer Andy Stack. “I wanted to choose an earnest love song, a chance to display the tenderness that we’ve come to know from Kurt, Tony, and the boys,” Stack explained in a statement. “But love is complex, and we discovered that you never find tenderness without a hint of melancholy, darkness, and maybe a little Xanax.”
Stack sold this one well. While Wonder’s version is tinged with wistfulness, it still has a buoyancy to it. Lambchop’s, in comparison, is more strung-out and shadowy. But it’s still gorgeous in its own way, the bottomless cragginess of Wagner’s voice imbuing this version with a sense of weathered gravity. Check it out — and revisit Wonder’s original — below.
TRIP is out 11/13 via Merge. Pre-order it here.