Miley Cyrus's Smoker's Rasp Makes for a Great, Gritty Cover of Mazzy Star's 'Fade Into You'

By Maria Sherman | January 29, 2021 | 10:30pm

Entertainment Music

Absolutely, but only the first song: Miley Cyrus, “Fade Into You:” For the duration of the pandemic, NPR’s wonderful Tiny Desk Concerts have necessarily adjusted, allowing the artists in question to do their thing from home. While I don’t believe that this set is Miley Cyrus’s home, I think that if I wanted to believe enough, it could be true? Anyway, Miley Cyrus! She’s listened to me finally, after I praised her cover of “Doll Parts” on Howard Stern in December! Here’s another cover—the ‘90s sad person classic, “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star. What works for me here is that Miley’s dressed like she’s about to hit the slots in Reno and that her smoker’s rasp lends a bit of grit to this number! Admittedly, I did not watch past the Mazzy Star cover because I really can’t abide her newest album, but I am once again asking Miley to release a covers album so that I don’t have to make janky playlists on YouTube to suit my purposes instead. Thanks! —Megan Reynolds

Y: Margo Price, “Hey Child” (music video) – “Hey Child,” one of the most devastating cuts from Margo Price’s country-meets-anthemtic classic rock record That’s How Rumors Get Started, has a music video now, highlighting Price’s particular tradegies: losing a child, prison time for a DUI, and the mental anguish partnered with each. It’s moving, and hard to watch, which usually means you should. —Maria Sherman

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Why?: King Krule, “Imagine” (John Lennon Cover) – After a bunch of hot and rich celebrities—the very same who’ve elected to treat this pandemic like an extended vacation—found themselves convinced by Gal Gadot to participate in a tone deaf cover of John Lennon’s anti-war classic “Imagine,” I considered the song irredeemable. Then, of course, King Krule decided to transform a hopeful tune into a cynical-sounding, maudlin reality check—and it’s great. More depressive, baritone Beatles worship, stat. —MS

Ya, but let me grab my studded belt first: Yuno, “Somebody” – Sub Pop Records signee Yuno was celebrated for his indie-emo, chillwave-adjacent, genre-ambivalent, multi-hyphenate Moodie EP in 2018; now, his pop has gone fully punk. “Somebody” is straight out of the early 2000s, but revamped—part Juice Wrld revivalism, part-idiosyncratic hook writing. Power chords ascend here, and scraps of leftover adolescent insecurity ground them. For an artist who manages to write self-aware singles from a complex interiority—unlike the emo of my youth—Yuno has succeeded at making something that, in his words, would make his “14-year-old self… very proud.” —MS

The verdict is Y: FKA twigs, Headie One, and Fred again.., “Don’t Judge Me” – What was once an interlude (“Judge Me”) on London rapper/producer team Headie One and Fred again..’s 2020 GANG mixtape gets fleshed out into a full song, “Don’t Judge Me.” Former guest FKA twigs assumes the lead here, and the song is reoutfitted with a dancefloor-friendlier four-on-the-floor (though the original’s ominous keyboards stay in tact). The choreography-laden video further extends things past the six-minute mark, doubling down on the idea that more is more. And so it is. —Rich Juzwiak

Y: serpentwithfeet, “Fellowship” – With the lilting “Fellowship,” Jez fav serpentwithfeet (aka Josiah Wise) unveils the first glimpse at his upcoming DEACON album, described in a press release that went out this week as “a study rather than a story delving into Black, gay love and the tenderness present in the best companionships, romantic or otherwise.” For his part, Wise says, “I originally approached this project wanting to make something that felt very sensuous. Something a lot softer, a lot more gentle than my previous work.” A collaboration with Sampha and Lil Silva, “Fellowship” is just that—a breezy, Balearic complement to the severe and tempestuous gospel-leaning R&B of his back catalog. “This is the blessing of my 30’s,” Wise sings repeatedly in “Fellowship,” but it’s our blessing too. —RJ