Music

Listen to Sondre Lerche's cover of Beyoncé's "Countdown"

by Tyler Munro

For the third consecutive year Sondre Lerche has teamed up with Stereogum to put out a cover for the holidays, but unlike years past, where he’s covered likeminded artists Animal Collective and Owen Pallett, he took the time this season to take a stab at Beyoncé’s “Countdown.” It’s an unlikely song choice for the soft-spoken Norwegian artist, but he’s got his reasons. Here’s his full statement explaining the choice:

This year, it’s officially a tradition: for the third time my annual Christmas gift to you is my humble solo acoustic version of someone else’s song; my favorite of the year, no less. In 2011 there was a tie between two incredible songs (“Changes” by Sandro Perri being the non-Beyoncé one), and both proved equally impossible to tackle or do justice to alone. But it’s what I do, and there are worse jobs, so I did it. I took the liberty of making some gender-oriented changes to the lyrics to better accommodate my macho-persona (although I wouldn’t dare tamper with Beyoncé’s appeal to all women to show their man they are the fliest simply by grinding “up on it girl, show him how you ride it”). That being said, the trick is to get passed the novelty-factor and just sing a beautiful song at the best of your abilities. Obviously, a significant part of this song’s appeal and ecstatic energy comes from the dizzying vocal performance and the mind-blowingly cool production work — elements and talents useless to even attempt replicating (especially not in my father in-law’s basement). But as long as there’s a song underneath, there’s a way. That’s how I operate. It’s what I do. Thanks for all the good times this year — and for listening. Happy Holidays, y’all.

Listen to his cover below and head over to Stereogum to download it.

[audio:http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2011/12/Countdown-Sondre-Lerche.mp3]