Phoebe Bridgers and Arlo Parks have joined forces for a BBC Radio 1 live session, covering Radiohead’s 1995 The Bends single ‘Fake Plastic Trees’. From a church, Bridgers performs the lead vocal line while Parks plays piano and sings.
The duo also performed a stripped-down version of ‘Kyoto’ from Bridgers’ latest album, Punisher.
It’s not the first classic song Bridgers has given her spin on this year. In June, the singer-songwriter performed a gorgeous cover of ‘First Day of My Life’ by Bright Eyes. Last month, she teamed up with our own Courtney Barnett to perform a rendition of Gillian Welch’s ‘Everything Is Free’ for the virtual Newport Folk Festival.
Bridgers released Punisher, her second album, back in June of this year, following up 2017 debut Stranger in the Alps. We recently called it one of the best records of 2020 thus far, saying the album “once again displays [Bridgers’] masterful ability to arrest your mind in just a few words. ‘Kyoto’ soars, ‘ICU’ devastates and ‘Halloween’ shows off the lyrical waltz she and Conor Oberst of are capable of perhaps far better than anything on Better Oblivion Community Center.”
Parks, meanwhile, released a pair of excellent EPs last year, Super Sad Generation in April and Sophie in December. She’s since released a string of acclaimed singles over the past year, such as ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Hurt’.
Watch Bridgers and Parks perform ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘Kyoto’ below.
