Photo by Jason Nocito for The FADER
A bright spot in quarantine has been Hayley Williams' "self-serenades" cover series. The Paramore frontwoman and solo artist behind this year's Petals For Armor has shared new acoustic versions of songs including "Smoke Signals" by Phoebe Bridgers, "Unison" by Björk, and SZA's "Drew Barrymore," humbly recorded at home. Today, she closes out the series with one last cover, this time giving her own spin on "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead. It's safe to say that her cover captures the overall spirit of summer 2020: alone, adrift, and with your phone close by. Listen to it below via Stereogum, below Williams' statement about her version and what the original means to her.
the top requested song throughout my brief career in self-serenadism has been a @radiohead song. seemed sacrilegious at first until i realized that the band themselves have never once regarded what they do as precious or never-to-be-toyed with. they are never beholden to any one version of their expression and public affections don’t seem to sway them. so many times people thought they were at their best only for them to bloom more beautifully into something unexpected and unequivocally better. for a time i pretended to be over Radiohead (iiii knowwww) but good good things always find you and welcome you back. so, in admiration of one of the best bands of all time – and in humility to everyone who did *not* ask for this – here’s a self-serenade of “Fake Plastic Trees”. enjoy it if you can.
