Remembering Yo La Tengo’s cover of The Cure
‘Friday I’m In Love’ is arguably the defining track by The Cure. The track has a completely different temperament to much of The Cure’s shadowy discography. It endeared itself to a huge audience for its jangly pop guitars and Robert Smith’s personable, pop vocals. Forming the second single from their most successful album Wish, the song became an international hit, charting in the US and the UK. With a memorable riff and popular appeal, it’s not hard to see why.
Robert Smith called ‘Friday I’m In Love’ a dumb pop song in that excels in its absurdity in an interview with Spin magazine: “It’s so out of character – very optimistic and really out there in happy land. It’s nice to get that counterbalance. People think we’re supposed to be leaders of some sort of ‘gloom movement.’ I could sit and write gloomy songs all day long, but I just don’t see the point.”
This optimism lent it to a widespread audience. Guiding listeners through each day of the week, ‘Friday I’m In Love’ is endlessly catchy and singalong-worthy. So much so that it’s been subjected to a number of covers since its release three decades ago. Indie sensation Phoebe Bridgers even covered it for Spotify Singles in 2018.
But perhaps the most interesting take on ‘Friday I’m In Love’ came from cult critics’ band Yo La Tengo, who included a cover of the track on their 2015 album Stuff Like That There. The record is a mix of original songs and covers. Their version of ‘Friday I’m In Love’ moves the track from the jangly pop realm into soft indie, replacing bouncy riffs with dreamy strums. Vocalist Georgia Hubley sweetens the track too, with more intimate, subtle tones. Instead of catchy, the track becomes comforting.
Yo La Tengo are well versed in interpreting the songs of other artists. In 1990, they released Fakebook, an album almost entirely made up of covers. James McNew explains their process of covering in an interview with Aquarium Drunkard, stating: “I think a lot of the time it boils down to ‘I have this song stuck in my head, I love this song, what are the chords?’”
He continues to explain how the cover of ‘Friday I’m In Love’ specifically came about, sharing, “Sometimes we can hear a song and think that it would translate nicely into our universe. ‘Friday I’m In Love’ is a song both me and Ira thought, ‘Man, I’d love to hear Georgia sing that song, why don’t we do that one?’ Of course Georgia was like ‘That song has too many words in it, it’s too hard to sing.’ But we begged enough to convince her to do it.”
The band accompanied their cover of the track with a chaotic video, at odds with the serenity of the music. Directed by Jason Woliner, the camera follows Hubley through the streets of New Jersey. As she sings, the people around her begin to explode as the world becomes increasingly apocalyptic. A news headline reads, “I could hear the hearts beating us down”, perhaps a reference to their 1997 record I Could Hear The Heart Beating As One.
Yo La Tengo’s take on the jangle pop classic provides a softer listen, perfect for when you need a more contemplative, downtempo dose of The Cure’s masterful songwriting. Revisit Yo La Tengo’s cover of ‘Friday I’m In Love’ below.
