After recently celebrating David Bowie's birthday, a new tribute album was announced by the British record label, BBE Music. The album, lovingly titled, Modern Love is set to be released on May 28, with 16 cover songs from notable artists such as Khruangbin, Helado Negro, We Are KING, Sessa and many more.
Below you can find the first single released for the album, We Are KING, covering "Space Oddity."
Amber and Paris Strother from We Are KING said in a press release why they decided to cover "Space Oddity" and why it's their favorite.
"There were so many amazing Bowie compositions to choose from, but 'Space Oddity' has always been our favorite." We Are KING's Amber, and Paris Strother says, "It's so visual; it has always felt like time travel in a song. It tells such a vivid and imaginative story of Major Tom's trip through space, and it was such a cool experience to reimagine what it'd be like on the voyage."
This David Bowie tribute album was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. With this album, they want to take a deep dive into the many genres Bowie explored in his music throughout his career. A frontier no one has navigated before.
"I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been traversed before," McFadden explained in press materials. "At least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop. Certainly, there's been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical style and direction."
Below the video for “Space Oddity” by We Are KING, you can check out the full Modern Love tracklist.
01 Miguel Atwood-Ferguson: “Life on Mars”
02 Helado Negro: “Sound & Vision”
03 Kit Sebastian: “Lady Grinning Soul”
04 Jeff Parker / The New Breed: “Soul Love” [ft. Ruby Parker]
05 Sessa: “Panic in Detroit”
06 The Hics: “The Man Who Sold the World”
07 Khruangbin: “Right”
08 Nia Andrews: “Silly Boy Blue”
09 Foxtrott: “Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family”
10 L’Rain: “Move On”
11 Eddie Chacon / John Carroll Kirby: “Tonight”
12 Jonsh Mutono: “Modern Love”
13 Bullion: “Where Are We Now”
14 Meshell Ndegeocello: “Fantastic Voyage”
15 Matthew Tavares: “Heroes”
16 We Are KING: “Space Oddity”