Duran Duran‘s new album, Danse Macabre, features a cover of the Billie Eilish song “bury a friend.” In taking on one of modern music’s biggest artists, the ’80s hitmakers saw an opportunity to catch people off guard.
“[Keyboardist] Nick [Rhodes] said to me … ‘I rather like this Billie Eilish song,'” bassist John Taylor tells ABC Audio. “And I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, that could be really very surprising.'”
“Doing a Billie song … it’s kind of a little different,” he continues. “It’s quite confrontational in a way. You’re sort of taking on the culture in a different way.”
Duran Duran’s rendition of “bury a friend” — which notably provides the title to Eilish’s 2019’s debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? — is more than a little different than the original, swapping out its spooky, minimalist production for a more elaborate sound.
“Her version is so lean,” Taylor says. “I wanted [our cover] to … have more of a sort of operatic sweep to it, just have more of a sort of an epic quality to it.”
“Billie’s is like a little speedboat,” he adds. “We’re like a f****** ocean liner.”
The Halloween-themed Danse Macabre is out now. It also includes a cover of Talking Heads‘ “Psycho Killer” featuring Måneskin bassist Victoria De Angelis.
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