Empress Of’s recent album Me was like an electronic alternative to the grand orchestral pop of Julia Holter’s Have You In My Wilderness, all electro sheen but alt. pop sensibility. And it was glorious. ‘Standard’ was a fairly buoyant cut from the record, sitting alongside the likes of ‘Water Water’ in a collection that’s filled with sparkly gems.
But Awful Records’ Abra doesn’t really do sugar, spice and all things nice. She even calls herself the Duchess of Darkwave. So it’s no surprise that, after doing some shows together, the duchess would take Empress Of’s work and turn it into something murkier and riddled with angst. Thus we now have a slightly abrasive, almost unrecognisable version of ‘Standard’ that’s more scattershot and weightier than its source material. It’s hardly as standard as the name would have you believe, but fans of either the producer or the alt-pop princess in waiting will lap it up.
Listen to Abra’s remix of ‘Standard’ below.