Marika Hackman – “Between The Bars” (Elliott Smith Cover) & “All Night” (Beyoncé Cover)
Last month, Marika Hackman announced she’d be following up her great 2019 album Any Human Friend with a quarantine covers album. The selections are pretty diverse and ambitious, ranging from recent Sharon Van Etten material to an obscure Radiohead cut. Today, she’s back with not one but two more previews of the album.
The latest tracks from Covers find Hackman taking on some pretty hallowed territory: One’s an Elliott Smith song, while the other’s by Beyoncé. The Smith song is “Between The Bars,” from 1997’s Either/Or. “I’ve been playing ‘Between the Bars’ live for a while now, on the last few tours and in livestreams,” Hackman explained in a statement. “It’s been nice to play around with the arrangement, and I hope people enjoy what I’ve done with this recorded version.”
In addition, Hackman’s offered her interpretation of Beyoncé’s “All Night,” which is, of course, from the monolithic Lemonade. (Hackman, as it happens, has her own great song called “All Night” as well.) Hackman’s version is a bit more hushed, though has little embellishments like layered vocals that echo the same effect in Beyoncé’s original. But Hackman stops short of going to the same ecstatic end destination of Beyoncé’s version, instead keeping “All Night” hushed, a nocturnal whisper rather than a sense of nocturnal euphoria. Below, check out Hackman’s covers alongside Smith and Beyoncé’s originals.
Covers is out 11/13 via Sub Pop in America, and Transgressive Records around the rest of the world. Pre-order it here.