Lorde Releases ‘Take Me to the River’ Cover in Honor of Talking Heads

Lorde is paying tribute to one of the bands she considers to be rock’s “Royals.”

On Thursday, the pop star released a cover of “Take Me to the River” for the upcoming Talking Heads tribute album, Everyone’s Getting Involved, set to be released sometime this year by A24 Music in honor of the 40th anniversary of the band’s Stop Making Sense concert film.

In addition to dropping a rendition of the classic rock song — which was first released by Al Green in 1974 and later recorded by Talking Heads in 1978 — the “Green Light” singer also shared a thoughtful note about how the band fronted by David Byrne made her feel “truly changed” upon first listening to them at 12 years old.

Lorde explained in her heartfelt letter to fans that she became a fan of the art-rock icons around the time she was a preteen in 2008.

“Something’s happening to me: I am beginning to ooze out in every direction,” she described of herself at the time. “I feel a constant burning urge to express myself, to draw a map that leads to who I am. I can’t get it right, there’s a deep discomfort in this, and I have no choice but to keep trying.”

She continued, “At the same time, I’m realising that if I look at a picture or listen to a song sometimes a surge of feeling will take over my whole body. In this way, I can remove my strange-feeling insides and replace them with whatever I want.”

The Grammy winner explained that her mother noticed her burgeoning creativity and showed her a video of Talking Heads performing on Top of the Pops. “I feel a portal open between me and the screen,” she says of watching the clip. “Humour, lust, rhythm and ritual course through me. I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I do understand that the band in the grainy video live with the same strangeness that I do.”

In her note, the Pure Heroine artist explains that she and her co-producer Jim-E Stack tried to capture the same feeling that she felt watching that video of the band for the first time.

As the Talking Heads’ version of “Take Me to the River” slowed down the track, seemingly increasing its sex appeal, and Lorde does the same in a 21st century way. She allows sultry, natural inflections in her voice to run wild over a version of the track that takes it into avant-pop territory with both glistening production and quirky percussive sounds.

The singer-songwriter is among the many star-studded guests on the upcoming compilation. Everybody’s Getting Involved also features major acts like Miley Cyrus, Kevin Abstract, Paramore and The National, as well as rising stars like Blondshell, girl in red and many others.

Shortly after the project was first teased earlier this year, Paramore’s take on “Burning Down the House” dropped, and it was followed by up-and-coming hip-hop artist Teezo Touchdown‘s version of “Making Flippy Floppy.”

After Lorde’s cover dropped, the hitmaker also posted to her Instagram Story to share shots from the day she got in the studio to record it.

Over a photo of herself sitting on the floor with the song’s lyrics, the Melodrama artist wrote, “So sick going back thru a teen portal for a few days.”

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Lorde also shared a sun-kissed selfie and opened up about how recording the cover ended up serving as inspiration for her forthcoming new album. “Studio sunbather on the day we worked on it,” she wrote of “Take Me to the River.”

“Stepping away from my own project for a couple ended up giving me a HUGE piece of the puzzle,” the “Perfect Places” singer continued. “Had just gone dark, was feeling returned to, masc n femme in balance, electrified and at peace.”

The New Zealander ended her post by teasing that more music is on the way: “Ty for listening,,,,Magic To Come🔮.”

Lorde last released a full-length album with her third studio effort, Solar Power, in 2021. She toured the project across the globe for much of 2022 and 2023, but has begun to seemingly tease that she’s working on new material with cryptic posts on social media in recent months.

In a February 2023 interview with the New Zealand outlet Ensemble, she also admitted that she’s trying to “move as quickly as [she] f—ing can” with her next project.

“This one, I really am trying to. I don’t want to wait, you know, so take from that what you will,” the alternative star said.

“I do a lot of research, I write a lot down. Sort of a big chunk of work before I actually start writing music,” she shared. “It’s been super exciting and I feel excited about what’s coming.”