Members of the English band, The XX, Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft covered The Verve’s ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’. On November 30th, the duo gave a performance of the cover at BBC’s  Maida Vale studios during a live session of Radio 1’s Future Sounds. Joining Romy and Sim on the mashup, among various others, was producer Fred Again.. The cover of the song also found a backup choir in the form of Romy, Casey MQ, Marika Hackman, Låpsley 

Initially, Sim’s plan was to cover a song from one of his favorite artists and bandmate, Romy, but found that their voices were not compatible. Sim explains that although they typically sing in unison within the confines of their band The XX, separately their voices stretch in different ways. The idea of performing a cover of ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ came to Oliver Sim after the original song came on while the singer was driving his car and Sim found himself singing along.  Despite being a cover, Sim really makes the song his own. The original song follows its name well, with strings and lyrics that carry a ‘bitter sweet’ tune. Sim’s song changes that dynamic by creating a more modern, hopeful sound. The new song shares a message of friendship and relying on others, which is a far cry different from the original meaning of the song. The cover sees the ‘bittersweet symphony of life’ as another reason to band together with loved ones.  

You can listen to the cover here. The song starts around the 1 hour and 30-minute mark and follows a brief introduction. 

As well as the cover of ‘Bitter sweet Symphony’, Oliver Sim also released Soulwax’s version of his song ‘Sensitive Child’, which was taken from his early album Hideous Bastard. The song is below. 

For more information visit NME.

photo credit Marv Watson