Phoebe Bridgers Plays Haunting Acoustic Cover of Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’ for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge: Listen

Nirvana ‘s 1991 Nevermind track “Lithium” was already a roiling, emotional roller coaster about grief, depression and loss that still stands as one of late singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain’s most intense portraits of inner turmoil.

In a solo acoustic cover for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, Phoebe Bridgers somehow found a new, even more haunting approach to the song that Nirvana’ famously played on MTV’s Unplugged , only minus Cobain’s signature pained howl.

Plucking out the tune’s melody on guitar, Bridgers unlocked a new gear, giving it a folky, ethereal quality as she breathily sung, “Sunday morning is every day, for all I care/ And I’m not scared/ Light my candles in a daze, ’cause I found God/ Yeah, yeah/ Yeah, yeah.” In keeping with the long-running show’s tradition of artists playing a classic cover alongside their own tunes, Bridgers also performed two tracks from her just-released Lost Weekend solo album, “Lost Boys” and “ Bobby .” It’s unclear when the session — whose video was not available at press time — was taped, but it appears to have been tracked before the singer was forced to cancel a run of planned intimate U.K. performances booked for this week due to a bout of appendicitis.

The shows in support of her third solo LP that were announced with just a week’s notice were slated to kick off on Wednesday (Aug.

19) in Kingston, London and include stops in Brighton tonight (Aug.

20) and Bristol on Friday (Aug.

21).

“I got appendicitis for my birthday,” she wrote in an Instagram Story that included a picture of her in a hospital bed.

“Everything in the UK this week will have to move but I’ll make it up to you!!!!” Her U.K. fans needn’t be too worried, as Bridgers is due back for a run of arena shows this fall, concluding with two sold-out shows at London’s O2 Arena on Dec.

1-2.

Listen to Bridgers’ rendition of Nirvana’s “Lithium” below.