Last month, it was revealed that Jack Antonoff had put together a ’70s-inspired soundtrack for Minions: The Rise Of Gru. When that news was revealed, a name that surely came immediately to the minds of informed music fans was St. Vincent; Her latest album, 2021’s Daddy’s Home, was very directly inspired by the era, which was made clear by both the sound of the music itself and St. Vincent repeating that point in interviews and promotional materials.
Sure enough, she was involved in the project, which is mostly covers of ’70s songs. For her contribution, St. Vincent offered a cover of Lipps Inc.’s enduring classic “Funkytown” (which was actually released as a single in 1980 but first appeared on the band’s 1979 album Mouth To Mouth, so it’s still a ’70s tune). It’s hard to make such a distinct song sound fresh but St. Vincent took a pleasing approach here, delivering robot-icized vocals over a funky and psychedelic performance of the song.
The full soundtrack comes out on July 1 and other covers to look forward to include Thundercat doing Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle,” Phoebe Bridgers doing The Carpenters’ “Goodbye To Love,” and Brockhampton doing Kool & The Gang’s “Hollywood Swinging.”
Listen to St. Vincent’s cover of “Funkytown” above.
Minions: The Rise Of Gru (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is out 7/1 via Decca Records. Pre-order it here.