Car Seat Headrest is no stranger to brooding meditations wrapped in rock guitars. Last year's incredible album Teens Of Denial (No. 8 on our list of the Best 50 Albums Of 2016) was filled with sullen observations on fleeting youth, discontent and foolish indiscretions. So it feels appropriate for lead singer and songwriter Will Toledo to cover a Smiths song all about depression, the power of empathy, and time's indifference to everything. For his passionate and heartbreaking version of "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore," Toledo swaps out all the electric guitars and drums for a single acoustic guitar.
"Time's tide will smother you," he sings. "And I will, too, when you laugh at people who feel so very lonely."
"That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" originally appeared on the 1985 Smiths album Meat Is Murder.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
