No matter how much you dress it up with upbeat production choices, sometimes the inherent sadness of a tune can still be identified in the final product. Such is the case with the title track from Samia’s recent LP Honey, one of our favorite releases of the year so far. “When we were recording ‘Honey’ for the album we added this ironic depth by turning what was originally a painful song into a kind of campfire sing along—big bouncy guitars, a happy melody, that endless refrain,” Samia shared of the recording in a press release.
Yet Maya Hawke was evidently among the attentive listeners who picked up on the lyrical theme, leaning into that somber tone for a new cover of the song which arrives as a part of Honey Reimagined, a series of reworked versions of Honey tracks by Samia’s peers. “It’s an amazing thing when a favorite person writes a favorite song,” Hawke shared. “I was honored to be asked to cover ‘Honey’ and I wanted to bring out the sadness I felt behind the celebration.”
“She stripped all of the campfire away,” Samia added. “In her version you can hear every bit of the desperation in how spare the production is. Exploring these new vantage points in my own work is exactly what draws me to the Reimagined concept.”
The Reimagined series will also feature covers and reworks by Blondshell (whose take on “Charm You” was released last month), Hovvdy, Ruston Kelly, Bartees Strange, Briston Maroney, Anjimile, Christian Lee Hutson, and more. Find Hawke’s cover below, and expect to hear more reworks soon.
