Triple J’s ‘Like A Version’ Compilation Gets U.S. Release With Covers by Tame Impala, Flume & More: Exclusive
The Aussies are coming with a new twist to your favorite songs.
The Triple J radio network’s popular Like A Version compilation series, which features high-profile acts performing songs by other famous artists who’ve inspired them, will get a U.S. release for the first time.
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Like A Version will launch Sept. 29 in North America via Metropolitan Groove Merchants, through the company’s creative relationship with Australia’s ABC Music. The initial release is a 21-song “best of” set featuring covers cut by Tame Impala (reworking Kylie Minogue), Flume (Ghost Town DJs), Chvrches (Arctic Monkeys), Mark Ronson (Queens of the Stone Age) and Mumford & Sons (White Lies). And there’s more in the pipeline.
“With this release and the next one, we’ll start to create some good awareness about Triple J and ‘Like A Version’ and hopefully we’ll get some attention on the Australian artists,” Metropolitan Groove Merchants (MGM) founder Michael Chase tells Billboard. “We want to get it to roll out with Australia every year.”
“Like A Version” is something of an institution Down Under. What started in 2005 as a simple covers segment on Triple J now sits in the national youth network’s most popular timeslot, during its Friday morning Breakfast shift.
A who’s who of local and international acts have recorded their own “versions” while visiting these shores, from alt-J to Lorde, The Kooks, The Wombats, Catfish & The Bottlemen, Halsey and others. Videos from the ABC studio sessions sometimes detonate on YouTube (Childish Gambino’s 2015 cover of Tamia’s “So Into You’ for Like A Version” is closing in on 10 million views), while the spinoff albums are regular chart-toppers in Australia. The most recent, 12th volume in the series bowed at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart last October. It was the fourth consecutive Like A Version album to do so.
The performers and songwriters and their respective professional teams have been encouraged to support the North American release on their social accounts and conversations with digital service providers in the region have been positive, says Chase from the indie music company’s Nashville offices.
“We’ve so many great acts in Australia,” notes Chase, son of the legendary Australian indie music executive Seb Chase, “it’s just been the tyranny of distance and the expense (that has held artists back). That’s part of why we put an office here in the U.S., to start bridging that gap. This project is another part of the jigsaw puzzle that can help brand Australian music in the market and give it more of a voice and also promote the fact that Australia has this great radio station Triple J that has birthed so much great music over the years.”
Check out the “Like A Version” tracklist below.
1. Tame Impala “Confide In Me” (Original by Kylie Minogue)
2. Flume “My Boo” (Ghost Town DJs)
3. Mark Ronson “I Sat By The Ocean” (Queens Of The Stone Age)
4. Chvrches “Do I Wanna Know” (Arctic Monkeys)
5. Chet Faker “(Lover) You Don’t Treat Me No Good” (Sonia Dada)
6. Ben Folds “Such Great Heights” (The Postal Service)
7. John Butler Trio “Happy” (Pharell Willams)
8. Meg Mac “Bridges” (Broods)
9. Bon Iver “Coming Down” (Anaiis Mitchell)
10. Mumford & Sons “Unfinished Business” (White Lies)
11. Boy & Bear “Back To Black” (Amy Winehouse)
12. Cub Sport “Ultralight Beam” (Kanye West)
13. Broods “One Dance” (Drake)
14. Robert DeLong “The Mother We Share” (Chvrches)
15. James Vincent McMorrow “West Coast” (Lana Del Rey)
16. San Cisco “Get Lucky” (Daft Punk)
17. DMA’s “Believe” (Cher)
18. City & Color “Settle Down” (Kimbra)
19. The Jezabels “Don’t Stop Believing” (Journey)
20. Ásgeir “Stolen Dance” (Milky Chance)
21. Catfish & The Bottlemen “Read My Mind” (The Killers)
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