I have never met an Ellie Goulding cover that I didn’t end up replaying over and over again. With some of her more recent covers being Active Child’s “Hanging On” and The Weeknd’s “High For This”, Alt-J’s “Tessellate” may be one of the best covers Goulding has done so far.
Goulding worked with producer Xaphoon Jones, who also produced her “High For This” cover, to help create the toned-down, R&B, minimalistic version of the original electro-rock tune. Her ethereal soprano vocals float over the stripped down beat, with a jazzy feel given by a quick saxophone breakdown in the middle of the song. In addition to Goulding’s atmospheric cover, she released a black and white music video to accompany the song. Goulding’s vocal cover and music video are distinctively different than the original “Tessellate”, but that hasn’t seemed to bother anybody. The band members of Alt-J recognize Goulding’s cover as a “spiritual sequel” to their song and video, with a certain special raunchiness of Goulding’s own.
If Ellie Goulding could do covers of all the songs ever, then I could die happy. Watch the original Alt-J music video for “Tessellate”, then check out the Ellie Goulding cover video below. Both are fantastic pieces of music.
