Sam Beam from Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell from Band Of Horses go way back. In 2015, the two childhood friends put out a covers album called Sing Into My Mouth, where they did renditions of songs by Talking Heads, Bonnie Raitt, John Cale, Sade, Pete Seeger, and more. It seems like they had a lot of fun doing that, and so today, a full decade later, they've announced another covers project. The Making Good Time EP arrives in September, and Beam and Bridwell are teasing it with their spin on a song that doesn't sound much like Iron & Wine or Band Of Horses at all: Kendrick Lamar and SZA's "Luther."
Beam and Bridwell recorded Making Good Time early this year in North Carolina with Brad Cook, around the same time that seemingly everyone and their mother had Kendrick's GNX on repeat. Bridwell says in a press release:
Working with Sam again feels like a homecoming in so many ways. To circle back ten years after Sing Into My Mouth and expand the project is a wonderful dream relived.
I chose to focus on "Luther" after kinda hitting a wall wondering which songs would be best to contribute. After much hand-wringing, it hit me, "Why not just do my favorite song?" I’d been playing the then newly released GNX album on repeat and that song in particular with my girls to the point of exhaustion.
About a week later, Kendrick strangled the game at the Super Bowl and 'Luther' would soon become a number 1 hit for so many weeks. Seems a little late now to share this as it’s been many months since recording it, but I knew that damn song was headed for big things. Praying we did some justice.
The EP also has covers of U2, Foreigner, Roxy Music, and boygenius, but it's gonna be hard to top hearing "Roman numeral seven, bae, drop it like it's hot" over those sparse acoustic guitars. Listen to the "Luther" cover and see the full EP tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For" (U2 Cover)
02 "Luther" (Kendrick Lamar & SZA Cover)
03 "I Want To Know What Love Is" (Foreigner Cover)
04 "More Than This" (Roxy Music Cover)
05 "Ketchum, ID" (boygenius Cover)
Making Good Time is out 9/12. Pre-order it here.
