The rising singer-songwriter gave The Cure’s 1992 track ‘High’ a stripped back acoustic treatment during her Like A Version session.
Violet Grohl has taken on The Cure for triple j’s Like A Version, turning ‘High’ into a sparse acoustic performance built almost entirely around her voice (per Billboard).
The track originally appeared on The Cure’s 1992 album Wish, but Grohl stripped away much of the song’s layered production for her version, leaving just acoustic guitar and vocals at the centre.
For Grohl, the song was an easy choice.
“I love the childlike joy of the lyrics… it’s such a cute love song,” she told triple j.
She also explained that The Cure have been part of her musical world since her early teens, with ‘Friday I’m in Love’ acting as an entry point into the band’s wider catalogue.
“I think it’s a perfect example of their sound during the early ’90s,” she said, “and I love all the imagery in the lyricism.”
Grohl said she wanted the cover to hold onto the romantic simplicity of the original, describing the feeling she was chasing as a “teenage crush kind of feeling”.
Violet Grohl ‘High’ (The Cure cover)
Admiration for Robert Smith
“I adore Robert Smith… I would hope that they would at least think it was okay.”
The session also included a performance of Grohl’s own track ‘595’, taken from her debut album Be Sweet to Me, which arrived in May.
That album already wears some of Grohl’s influences openly, drawing heavily on late-’80s and early-’90s alternative rock. The Cure sit alongside artists including Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Soundgarden and The Breeders among the acts she has cited as touchstones.
“There’s something so powerful about that period of music, from the messaging to the visuals,” Grohl previously said. “It’s authentic and raw.”
While Grohl has spent years appearing around Foo Fighters and performing alongside her father, Dave Grohl, her solo career has quickly begun carving out its own identity.
Her Like A Version performance makes that direction even clearer, intimate, understated and rooted firmly in the alternative music that shaped her.
