New Tribute Highlights Connection between Bowie and ‘All Things Soulful’

BBE Music is releasing Modern Love, a tribute album to the late David Bowie, on May 28. In advance of the album, the label has issued We Are KING’s psychedelic cover of “Space Oddity.”

“There were so many amazing Bowie compositions to choose from but ‘Space Oddity’ has always been our favorite. It’s so visual; it has always felt like time travel in a song,” explain Amber and Paris Strother. “It tells such a vivid and imaginative story of Major Tom’s trip through space, and it was such a cool experience to reimagine what it’d be like on the voyage.”

Featuring We Are KING and artists such as Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, L’Rain, Nia Andrews and others, Modern Love seeks to “champion [Bowie’s] lesser known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk and gospel.” 

The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album features artists who straddle different worlds musically.

“Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie’s diverse and transcendent career, aiming to highlight the relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color,” reads the press release.

Music executive and DJ Drew McFadden and BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah curated the project. 

“I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,”  says McFadden. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical style and direction.”

Pre-orders for Modern Love begin next month.