“Sometimes” by MUNA (Britney Spears Cover), Saturday, January 21, 2023 (repost)

MUNA’s third and self-titled album was released on June 24th. Their album gives the single from September 2021, “Silk Chiffon,” a home. The band also released three other singles from the 11-track album prior to its release. But in early June last year, MUNA released a non-album track--a cover of Britney Spears’ 1999 bubblegum ballad “Sometimes”--for the Hulu original film Fire Island, also released on the same day. The film was written by and stars comedian Joel Kim Booster and co-stars the Saturday Night Live openly gay comedian Bowan Yang in a modern queer retelling of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice set in New York's legendary LGBTQ+ haven.  

BABY, ALL I NEED IS TIME.  “Sometimes” is Britney Spears’ second single from her debut record, ...baby one more time. Following her smash #1 hit “…Baby One More Time,” “Sometimes” takes a more laidback adult contemporary sound. Like many of the songs on Britney’s debut record, “Sometimes” was produced by Max Martin and written by another Swedish songwriter, Jörgen Elofsson and recorded the track at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm. MUNA’s cover plays into the '90s but takes an alternative girl-rock take on the Britney classic. As a band of LGBTQ+ musicians, Fire Island isn't the first film to which MUNA has contributed. The band also contributed to the 2018 Netflix film Alex Strangelove, a film about a high school student who comes to terms with his sexuality. The band performs the song "I Know a Place" in the film. In Fire Island, MUNA's version of "Sometimes" reprises the song, which the cast sang along to in an earlier scene.

ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO IS TO HOLD YOU TIGHT. I've been a fan of Joel Kim Booster since he appeared on a 2019 episode of Good Christian Fun. When he talked about the intersection of his Christian upbringing and his coming to terms with his sexuality in a strict evangelical home, I felt that I had met a kindred spirit. Plus his knowledge of '00s CCM which he looks back wistfully with a conflicted feeling about was quite relatable. Since then I've followed his work as a writer for The Other Two, late night appearances on Conan, and a dramatic podcast called Moonface (왕따). I even tried his short-lived sitcom Sunny Side, which was, well, cancelled for a reason. I usually don't expect much when it comes to queer films, as many of them feel like Christian films--an overtly preachy message, lower production quality, and a storyline that doesn't appeal beyond the limited demographic the film was written for--however, Bowen Yang, Margaret Cho, and How to Get Away with Murder's Conrad Ricamora have me a little more hyped. The film's director, Andrew Ahn, is another reason I have a little higher expectations for Fire Island. Ahn's work includes two seasons of This Close, a television drama that explores the relationship between best friends who are deaf, a gay man and a straight woman. Ahn also wrote and directed the film Spa Night, a story about a gay Korean-American teen who struggles with familial pressures to achieve the American dream while working at his family-owned Korean-style spa in Las Angeles. I hope that Fire Island is the kind of pride month film that doesn't fall too much into clichés. 

Muna version:

Britney Spears version: