Photo by Joshua Mellin
“The Moon Song”, Karen O’s original contribution to the Spike Jonze film Her, earned the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer a Best Original Song nomination in the 2014 Academy Awards. Turns out an alternate version of the song exists, featuring none other than Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig.
Their intertwining male-female vocals is exactly what Karen had in mind when she first penned the composition. “I wrote the song as a duet,” she told Rolling Stone. “I was really excited at the prospect of getting to record it with a male vocalist. Ezra was super cool and open, he slipped into character like a champ and damn he’s got the goods.”
While the Oscar-nominated original was an already delicate and beautiful affair, this new take benefits from the addition of piano and the chemistry of Karen O and Koenig’s overlapping croons. “Singing this song with Ezra felt like fulfilling a wish of my die-hard romantic junior high self,” she added. Listen in below (via Rolling Stone).
A three-song EP of “The Moon Song” is due out this week via iTunes.
