i chose a bunch of my favourite songs and made a tasty little covers album during lockdown and boy am i thrilled for you all to hear it. listen to Realiti and preorder the record at https://t.co/YghwWtKCIk (1/2) pic.twitter.com/gFxplRph69

— Marika Hackman (@MarikaHackman) September 15, 2020

Covers follows 2019’s Any Human Friend, which was widely received as some of Hackman’s best, most honest and self-proclaimed “unifying and sexy” work. Covers will likely allow Hackman to experiment musically and to pour herself into an album while at the same time taking a step back from the light that she shone on herself and her own experiences throughout Any Human Friend.

In addition to the announcement, Hackman shared one of the ten covers: a version of Grimes’ critically acclaimed ‘Realiti’. If this is a sign of what’s to come on Covers, then we should all be getting quite excited! You can listen to it below.

Hackman’s ‘Realiti’ is completely stripped back. The video that she shared sets her vocals against the visual of a car driving along a motorway at night, which produces the most distinctive feeling. Where Grimes’ original makes its mark with layers of electronic beats and synths, the power of Hackman’s version is all in her melodic, melancholic voice.

In addition to an album announcement and a song preview, Hackman has promised a live stream with her entire band on the release date. She will perform in an empty swimming pool. Tickets are available with an album pre-order, all of which can be found here. Alongside your ticket and album, Hackman instructs you to “bring your armbands.”

Speaking about the concept of the album, Hackman said, “when it comes to covers I like to pick songs which I have been listening to obsessively for a while. It gives me a natural understanding of the music, and lets me be more innovative with how I transform it.” An album dedicated to covers is a great place to really play with music and style, and it seems like this is exactly Hackman’s goal.

She has chosen to take on some major and distinctive artists, but I think we can expect to hear Beyonce like we’ve never heard her before in Hackman’s newest venture. Likewise, there are few other places that you might hear Grimes and Elliott Smith compliment one another – all in all, it points to a carefully thought out tracklist. It might be two months until anyone can get their hands on it, but already this project feels special.

Tracklist:

1. You Never Wash Up After Yourself (Radiohead)
2. Phantom Limb (The Shins)
3. Playground Love (Air)
4. Realiti (Grimes)
5. Jupiter 4 (Sharon van Etten)
6. Pink Light (MUNA)
7. Between The Bars (Elliott Smith)
8. Temporary Loan (Edith Frost)
9. In Undertow (Alvvays)
10. All Night (Beyonce)

His death was confirmed via a statement on his Facebook page, which simply said:

And all the angels sing
“Que Sera Sera”

Richard Ochoa Swift
March 16, 1977 – July 3, 2018

Born in California, Swift worked all his life as a prolific self-taught musician and producer, drumming for The Shins between 2011 and 2016, and playing bass on tour with The Black Keys in 2014. He also founded National Freedom, an independent recording studio in Oregon, as well as producing the work of Foxygen, Sharon Van Etten and Guster, amongst others.

Those paying tribute to Swift over social media included the lead singer of The Black Keys Dan Auerbach, who said the musician had now joined his mother and sister. He ended his tribute with the words “I will miss you my friend”.

Since being founded in 1996 The Shins have released four studio albums, not too many going by today’s standards so the prospect of a fifth album is exciting news! The Shins’ last release came in 2012 with ‘Port of Morrow’, released to critical acclaim, with critics regarding it as their best work yet.

However their last piece of music was the song ‘So Now What’, which was written and released for the 2014 Zach Braff film ‘Wish I was Here’. I mention Zach Braff as he has often collaborated with The Shins before in the past; in particular people might mainly know The Shins from Braff’s directing debut ‘Garden State’ in 2004, wherein the song ‘New Slang’ had a significant part to play.

Listen to ‘New Slang’ below:

But back to the topic on hand; The Shins posted a brief teaser of what we can only imagine is a single on their upcoming fifth album on Instagram, see it and listen to it below:

King Puffin #shinstagram

A video posted by theshins (@theshins) on Apr 13, 2016 at 10:55am PDT

Hopefully we will have more news to tell you in the upcoming weeks as we cover The Shins eagerly anticipated fifth album. It is refreshing to see them back as a band after lead man James Mercer left the band in between albums ‘Wincing the Night Away’ and ‘Port of Morrow’.