The soundtrack to Minions: The Rise Of Gru is out today, which has Phoebe Bridgers covering The Carpenters, HER covering Sly And The Family Stone, St. Vincent covering Lipps Inc., Kali Uchis covering Stan Getz And João Gilberto, and Tame Impala and Diana Ross contributing a new song.
Along with these gems, there’s also Thundercat taking on “Fly Like An Eagle,” originally by Steve Miller Band. The idiosyncratic musician does what one would expect — he makes the song weirder and woozier. It’s full of sparkling synths and warped bass, but his vocals are clean, guiding the track forward. It ends by slowly fading away into echoes.
Last month, he shared a collaboration with Gorillaz for “Cracker Island,” about which the Gorillaz virtual band member 2D said, “It’s nice to be back, I’m well into our new tune, it brings back weird and scary memories of stuff that hasn’t happened yet.” The narrative of the tune was explained as “the world’s biggest virtual band have relocated to Silverlake, California where it turns out that the answer to life’s question — the one truth to fix the world — is to invite fans to join ‘The Last Cult,’ with Murdoc as its self-appointed Great Leader.”
Listen to Thundercat’s cover of “Fly Like An Eagle” above.