Japanese Breakfast (aka Michelle Zauner) has shared a cover of Yoko Ono’s 1981 track ‘Nobody Sees Me Like You Do’, landing as the latest preview of the forthcoming ‘Ocean Child’ tribute album.
Initially appearing on ‘Season Of Glass’ – Ono’s fifth studio album, and her first solo effort after the 1980 murder of husband John Lennon – Zauner’s take on the song swaps its dense, orchestrally flourished soundscape for crisp, spatial production carried by clean piano chords and her own soaring vocal.
Take a look at the lyric video for Japanese Breakfast’s rendition of ‘Nobody Sees Me Like You Do’ below:
‘Ocean Child: Songs Of Yoko Ono’ will be released on February 18 via Canvasback Music / Atlantic. Curated by Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, it features 14 new versions of Ono’s tracks performed by a range of artists.
David Byrne and Yo La Tengo, for example, took on a collaborative cover of ‘Who Has Seen The Wind?’, shared earlier this month as the record’s lead single.
Elsewhere on the album are covers by Deerhoof and The Flaming Lips, who have both previously collaborated with Ono, plus contributions from Sharon Van Etten, Jay Som, US Girls, Death Cab For Cutie themselves, and more.
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The album will also be accompanied by a podcast hosted by Gibbard and music journalist Jenny Eliscu, which features in-depth discussions of Ono’s music and legacy.
Pre-orders for ‘Ocean Child’ are available now, and a portion of all proceeds from the record will be donated to WhyHunger. Ono has supported the non-profit organisation, and their efforts in fighting hunger and poverty, for decades.
In a statement shared with the album’s announcement, Gibbard said: “Yoko makes art that teaches all of us that peace is possible. [This album] was born out of both love and frustration.
“The ‘love’ part is pretty obvious; It is the seemingly bottomless well of inspiration and enjoyment Yoko Ono’s music has provided me and I must assume everyone else present here on this compilation. The ‘frustration’ part, on the other hand, goes back decades.”
Earlier today (January 26), Japanese Breakfast was announced as part of the line-up for Wilco’s Solid Sound festival in May. Zauner released her latest album with the project, ‘Jubilee’, last summer. In a four-star review, NME’s Will Richards hailed it as a “bold statement of ambition”.