Arlo Parks has performed a gentle new version of Clairo’s ‘Bags’ during a new radio session.
The original version of the track appeared on the US musician’s debut album ‘Immunity’, which was released in 2019.
South London’s Parks was performing for SiriusXMU ahead of the release of her own debut album ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’ when she played her take on ‘Bags’.
Her reworking of the song stripped back its layers to just a gentle piano line and soft, distant drum beats, floating underneath Parks’ tender vocal delivery. Listen to it below now.
Clairo’s original release of ‘Bags’ features drums from Danielle Haim and was produced by former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij. She reflected on its release on its one-year anniversary in 2020, describing it as “the beginning of a new version of me, one that is slowly but surely getting to know herself”.
“I was in a really low place when I wrote ‘Bags’ last January – and if you told me then that I would be happy in a year, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”
Parks has previously covered the song during her “at home” covers series, which she started during the first coronavirus lockdown in the UK last year. A brief version of ‘Bags’ featured in the series in April.
Meanwhile, the recent The Forty-Five cover star is set to release ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’ tomorrow (January 29). Yesterday (27), she shared ‘Hope’, the last single to be taken from it ahead of the full album release. It will appear on the record alongside tracks like ‘Caroline’, ‘Hurt’ and ‘Black Dog’.
“It’s exciting and also terrifying,” the musician told us last year about preparing to release her first album. “It’s the first time I’ve had this massive body of work, and put my name to it. It’s something I’ve spent a lot of time and tears on. Although I’m apprehensive, I’m really excited.”
