Sondre Lerche has announced a covers album, titled Understudy, that will be out this Friday. On it he offers his take on hits by Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, Doja Cat, Drake, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Sia and more. There’s also a bonus digital EP featuring covers of Beyonce, Prefab Sprout, Scott Walker, Madonna & more.
Sondre explains the genesis of the album: “It has been one of very few constants in my life the past ten years, that every Christmas as I return home — usually on Dec 21 or 22 — I will get together with my friend and producer Matias Téllez (girlinred, Maisie Peters, Young Dreams) in his Bergen-studio to record a cover of a favorite hit from the year passed,” he says. “The ritual started just as I was about to finalize the recording of my Please album — which, for me, was truly a game-changing album. I remember recording the vocals for ‘Sentimentalist’ earlier on the day we recorded ‘Wrecking Ball,’ the oldest recording on Understudy, captured in December 2013. We didn’t have much time left that night, cause we had gotten carried away in this fantastic new process and collaboration.”
He continues: “These 10 covers run parallel to the explorations and temperaments behind the several albums that would follow, from Please, via Pleasure (‘Into You’ and ‘Hotline Bling’), Patience (‘Bad Liar’ and ‘thank u, next’), and onto last year’s Avatars Of Love (‘I Contain Multitudes’ and ‘Anti-Hero’). To me, these recordings depict Matias and I building a friendship and a language in the studio — a mutual infatuation with the possibilities of the studio and fun we have exploring together. Hearing all ten of them in sequence now, starting with the most recent one, and slowly moving backwards in time, almost feels like time travel — in ways both deeply personal, and as tiny glimpses into the ever evolving path of large scale pop music.”
Sondre has shared his version of Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” along with a video that features clips from his videography. Check that out along with Understudy‘s artwork and tracklist below.
In other news, Sondre has been busy playing Christian, one of the lead roles in the Norwegian production of Broadway’s Moulin Rouge: The Musical! “The song from 2014, Sia’s dizzying ‘Chandelier,’ also came with a premonition: this fall I get to sing it on stage almost every night as I descend into absinth-drenched suicidal tragedy, in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, here in Oslo. This past decade has been the most exciting, surprising and fruitful decade of my life so far. I’m anxious to see what songs I’ll be lining up for Volume 2 of Understudy, ten years from now.”
Understudy:
01) Anti-Hero (Taylor Swift)
02) Kiss Me More (Doja Cat)
03) Rain On Me (Lady Gaga/Ariana Grande)
04) I Contain Multitudes (Bob Dylan)
05) thank u, next (Ariana Grande)
06) Bad Liar (Selena Gomez)
07) Into You (Ariana Grande)
08) Hotline Bling (Drake)
09) Chandelier (Sia)
10) Wrecking Ball (Miley Cyrus)
Bonus Tracks (digital version only):
11) The Plague (Scott Walker)
12) Take A Bow (Madonna)
13) Moving The River (Prefab Sprout)
14) Countdown (Beyonce)
15) Moon River (Henry Mancini)