You always have to love when an artist that you love covers a song by another artist you love. We’ll somewhat ignore the fact that it only exists because it was commissioned by North Face for an ad campaign. “The Story” used to be Brandi Carlile’s biggest song and the one that people knew if they had any clue who I was talking about. Most often because of it’s use in conjunction with Grey’s Anatomy. Now I feel like Brandi Carlile lives in this weird liminal space where she’s gotten way more popular than she was when I first got into her. I get fewer blank looks when I mention her, but there are still a lot of people who have no clue who she is. Case in point, the first comment on this YouTube video from someone saying they have to go look up Brandi Carlile because they’ve never heard of her. Now I have no clue what might be the song people associate with her.

Anyway “The Story” is still an absolutely fantastic song. Michelle Zauner aka Japanese Breakfast does a fine job doing a fairly straightforward cover it. Brandi brings a rawness to the original version that is not present in this one that is a little more smooth. I do like it and wish as multiple people have said in the YouTube comments that they would make it available on Spotify.