Friday (April 6) was a big day for music, with the arrival of Cardi B‘s long-awaited debut album Invasion of Friday alongside new offerings featuring Calvin Harris, Justin Bieber and more. So followers of Spotify’s popular New Music Friday playlist may have been surprised to see a new version of a 2007 cut from Northwest indie rockers Band of Horses topping the 101-item list.
But “No One’s Gonna Love You (Stockholm Version)” is placed where it is for a reason. As Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell explains in a lengthy and emotional Facebook post, the new arrangement is a tribute to Chris Bevington, a Spotify exec who was tragically killed at age 41 during a terrorism-linked truck attack in Stockholm on April 7, 2017. At the time, Bevington was working out of the Swedish city as Spotify’s director of global partnerships/business development.
According to Bridwell’s Facebook note, the reigning 2000s indie rock band was asked by Bevington’s widow, Annika, to perform “No One’s Gonna Love You” at the funeral. “?I was a bit apprehensive,” Bridwell explains, “I was aware of the horrific tragedy that took his life, and my heart broke for his family left in the wake.”
The request from Bevington’s family gave Bridwell the idea to collaborate with local Stockholm musicians Jesper Nordenström and Ola Gustafsson on a new, stripped-back version of the fan favorite track: “I thought that releasing this collaboration could represent a bridge for the healing between two countries separated by thousands of miles, but aligned in friendship.”
The melancholy song, which hinges on the heartbreaking lyric “no one’s gonna love you more than I do,” was originally released in 2007 as part of Band of Horses’ sophomore album Cease to Begin.
This Friday, one day before the one-year anniversary of Bevington’s untimely death, the new and notably more somber arrangement became available to the public, along with the band’s cover of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds‘ “Into My Arms.” Echoing the release, Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist description reads “in memory of Chris Bevington.” Billboard reached out to Spotify and Band of Horses for additional comment.
Listen to the tribute in full, below.