Listen to Slowthai's cover of Elliott Smith's 'Needle In The Hay' (original) (raw)

Slowthai has delivered his own take on Elliott Smith’s ‘Needle in the Hay’.

A largely faithful take on the late musician’s 1995 track, the Apple Music Home Session cover sees the Northampton rapper ditching his typically explosive delivery to instead offer a stripped-back vocal – in keeping with the spirit of Smith’s original.

Describing his choice of cover, as well as his performance of his own track ‘adhd’, Slowthai said: “The lyrics to both tracks mean a lot to me.

“‘adhd’ because I feel it’s inward-facing and ‘Needle in the Hay’ because that song got me through a lot of down days.”

Slowthai performs live in Manchester in 2019. CREDIT: Visionhaus/Getty Image

You can listen to the track in full here.

It comes after Slowthai released his second album ‘Tyron’ last Friday (February 12), which is currently leading the race for the UK’s number one album this week.

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In the midweek chart update from the Official Charts Company, Slowthai was over 4,000 sales ahead of second-placed Pale Waves, and is currently both the most-streamed and physically purchased album of the week.

In a five-star review of Slowthai’s ‘TYRON’, NME wrote: “The Northampton rapper’s second album sees him reckon with childhood, adulthood, shame, defiance and regret.

“The record is in form and content an ode to complexity and nuance, a portrait of an inner psyche swollen with defiance, but also prone to shrink with self-doubt.”