Country crooner Sturgill Simpson has turned Nirvana's scorching grunge rock hit "In Bloom" into a slow-burning, twisted ballad. "He's the one who likes all the pretty songs, and he likes to sing along," Simpson sings in the loveliest of voices, turning the original song on its head.
In a surreal video for the new song, a strange, humanlike creature with a cannon for a head slowly rows a boat over a turbulent sea, as a dark and terrifying storm gathers all around. What unfolds next is so odd and unexpected it's anybody's guess what, exactly, is happening or why. But then, Simpson's take on the nearly 25-year old song bears little to no resemblance to the original, and it's not the first time he's flipped a classic — his cover of When In Rome's "The Promise," from his 2014 album Metamodern Sounds In Country Music stripped the bombast (not to mention the '80s drum programming) out of that song, leaving raw heartache behind.
Simpson's cover of "In Bloom" appears on his upcoming album, A Sailor's Guide To Earth, due out April 15 on Atlantic. Both this video and the one for the album's first single, "Brace For Impact (Live A Little)" were directed by Matt Mahurin.
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