About The Record
2020 was a great year for cover songs. We heard Soccer Mommy’s cover of The Cars 1984 hit “Drive.” The late Sharon Jones and her band the Dap Kings released an entire album covering artists we love, like Prince, Kenny Rogers and Stevie Wonder. Rising star Devon Gilfillian remade Marvin Gaye’s classic album What’s Going On with all the confidence in the world.
New York singer-songwriter Samia took the opposite approach to covering songs in 2021: Why not gather your artist peers to remake your work and apply their voices to your vision?
WNXP’s second Record of the Week for 2021 is The Baby Reimagined by Samia, a remix of her 2020 debut album, The Baby, released back in August. The new 11-track project features artists she admires and calls friend, including Bartees Strange, Briston Maroney, Districts and Michelle, that Samia asked to bring their perspectives to her work.
Bartees Strange, who covered songs by The National for his EP Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy back in 2020, ended up taking her song “Pool” to a place she said was more representative of the feeling she had when writing the song. And R&B collective MICHELLE added a more up-tempo sound to her song “Minnesota.”
The Baby was already like a screenplay of Samia’s life, but with this reboot she has casted others in leading roles to help bring her reimaged project to life.
