In November 2023, The Kills recorded a live, acoustic cover of the title track from Billie Eilish‘s second album, Happier Than Ever. Now they’ve released a studio version with a much fuller sound. Eilish originally released the song as the sixth single from that album, back in 2021.
It starts out with a programmed beat instead of the acoustic guitar but singer Alison Mosshart is soon joined by a few other instruments, adding a little more instrumental colour than the stripped down original (or their acoustic cover). The first part of the song has a shifting instrumental palette under Mosshart’s voice, which mostly sticks to Eilish’s original vocal melody.
The original is famous for its transition from a gentle ballad to outright rock music, not a style Eilish is known for. Not surprisingly, The Kills lean hard into it with a dense, noisier backdrop. Mosshart’s voice is still mixed far forward in the mix, though, meaning that the distortion is more of an accompaniment than the primary focus. Mosshart obviously sings in a more traditionally rock style than Eilish and there are no gang vocals like the original, so it does still feel a little more “rock” than the original.
It’s a pretty faithful cover that very much honours the original, but it’s also unmistakably made by a rock group rather than a pop singer (even if the original is pretty heavy). Check it out:
