Singer-songwriter Tori Amos has recorded a pensive cover of Kendrick Lamar's 2012 track "Swimming Pools (Drank)." The rendition, composed in conjunction with Trevor Horn, is the first song on the Buggles frontman's new covers album Echoes – Ancient and Modern.
The track is defined by resonant piano riffing, lush string arrangements, and Amos' signature mezzo-soprano vocals.
Tori Amos and Trevor Horn released a cover of Kendrick Lamar's "Swimming Pools (Drank)" on Friday.
"I thought of it as a kind of literate, modern American standard, a rap song open to reinterpretation," Horn said of the original version in the new album's liner notes obtained by Consequence. The LP was released on Dec. 1. "I listened to numerous other rap songs but nothing seemed as smart and funny," Horn said. "Tori Amos took the idea of adapting Kendrick Lamar’s psyched-up swagger in her stride and made it intensely cinematic."
Fans were also loving Amos' approach to the track. "(She) has always had a gift for transforming covers," one YouTube commenter said. "This was a challenging song to attempt but she was the perfect choice to do it with respect. It evokes a Chandelier-esque sorrow, a Kendrick in late life plucking keys looking back wondering what happened. Brilliant and heartfelt."
Amos has covered a wide array of tracks including Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Slayer's "Raining Blood" and Eminem's "'97 Bonnie & Clyde."
Horn's new album also includes features from Iggy Pop, Rick Astley, Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp. It follows his 1980s-themed cover album Reimagines the Eighties, released in 2019, which featured Horn's takes on sonngs like David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and a-Ha's "Take on Me," with guest vocals from the likes of Robbie Williams and Seal.
"Swimming Pools" was on Lamar's second studio album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, which made it to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200. His subsequent LPs To Pimp a Butterfly from 2015, Damn from 2017, and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers from last year each made it to the No. 1 spot.
Next week, the rapper will headline a show in Rwanda as part of the Move Afrika touring project organized by Global Citizen and Lamar's company pgLang.
