UPDATE: In a series of tweets, Sky Ferreira denied claims that “Downhill Lullaby” interpolates the Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” a song whose strings sample sparked a massive lawsuit.
It doesn’t have anything to do with the Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” It’s completely unrelated. I was JOKING!What a mess.Please take it out if written & out of your brains. I spent so much time recording/writing/arranging it & having people play it. It’s completely original.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) March 27, 2019
Here’s what I actually based it off of: George Antheil,Krzysztof Penderecki,Mica Levi & John Cale
I’m putting out another version where you can hear all of the strings/what was recorded too
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) March 27, 2019
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Sky Ferreira has unveiled her brooding new song, “Downhill Lullaby,” marking her first original solo music since 2013.
The song finds Ferreira crafting an aptly nightmarish soundscape out of wobbling bass, trudging drums and the sinister swoop of strings, which notably interpolate the Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” Ferreira keeps her voice on a razor’s edge, shaping it into a sweet, lulling croon one moment before bringing it down to a low whisper with a menacing bite the next.
“Downhill Lullaby” is expected to appear on Ferreira’s new album, Masochism, though a release date has yet to be announced. In an interview with Pitchfork, Ferreira compared making “Downhill Lullaby” to the chaos Mickey Mouse brings about in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Fantasia.
“You know how all the brooms are making a gigantic mess and the water starts rising and rising and rising and rising?” she said. “It was sort of like that: Magical, but at the same time, ‘What is going on?’ And then cleaning it all up.”
Masochism follows Ferreira’s 2013 debut album, Night Time, My Time. While she has not released any original solo material since then, she’s recently collaborated with artists like Iceage, Ssion and the Jesus and Mary Chain. She also covered the Commodores’ “Easy” for the Baby Driver soundtrack (she appeared in that movie as well), and shared a rendition of ‘Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry” in 2018.
