PREMIERE: Listen to Lucy Sunday's Radiant Cover of Chet Faker's "Talk is Cheap"

Photo by Amanda Bjorn

A great cover song is hard to pull off. Generally speaking, they tend to fall into one of two categories: a karaoke copy of the original, or a deliberate, gimmicky stylistic departure. But the most successful ones undo their originals and reclaim them as the artist's own.

Take Lucy Sunday's cover of Chet Faker's "Talk is Cheap," for example. We love Chet's version, all airy R&B swoons, as much as the next guy, but this lush electro-pop cover from the LA-based, California-bred Sunday inhabits the tune so well that we thought it was her original when we first heard it.

"'Talk is Cheap' was my gateway song to Chet. I was turned on to him last winter when I was living in NYC," says the singer-songwriter. "It was around the time I started dating again after splitting from my ex the previous spring, and was recalibrating myself with the world. 'I want to make you move with confidence / I want to be with you alone' was a really empowering line for me."

Sunday allows her raw, soul-kissed vocals—we're getting just a hint of Mariah—to break and flow over sparse synth and bass lines produced by Shane McKillop of Gardens and Villa. It's an intimate listen, confident in its vulnerability (judging by Sunday's self-directed video for her debut "December Love," that's kind of her speciality). The whole thing feels like the sonic equivalent of sunshine breaking through leaves.

The track is Sunday's second official release, but her earnest synth-soul stylings have already earned the blessings of collaborators like William Arcane, St. Lucia, and Milo Greene. Look out for her debut EP early next year.

Listen to the premiere of "Talk is Cheap" and get more info, including a link to a free download, below.

Download "Talk is Cheap" on Bandcamp and check out Lucy Sunday on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Andrea Domanick is the West Coast Editor of Noisey. Follow her on Twitter.