After lots of hype, The Sims 4 expansion pack Cottage Living finally hit stores yesterday. The release includes songs by Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus sung in in Simlish, the game’s in-universe gibberish language.
For Cottage Living, Baker decided to tackle her Little Oblivions track “Faith Healer,” which sounds surprisingly natural despite the fact that she’s singing made-up words. Baker even adds in the trills and falsetto climbs that occur in the original version of the song! It’s creative and fun, and yes, packs plenty of emotion despite incoherent lyrics.
As for Dacus, she chose to perform her Home Video song “Hot & Heavy” for the game. Like Baker, she seems to navigate the familiar-yet-not complexities of Simlish surprisingly well. It almost sounds like Dacus has sung “Hot & Heavy” like this a hundred times before, all gentle delivery and emotional punch-ups.
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By now, most of the artists who get to have their music transformed into a hit in the world of The Sims grew up playing the video game series themselves. As such, it feels like an honor to be tapped to contribute. At least that’s what Michelle Zauner, aka Japanese Breakfast, said when she shared her Simlish version of “Be Sweet” last month. “I played The Sims a lot when I was a teenager especially and have sunk many hours of my life into creating various families,” she told Waypoint. “So to be singing one of my songs that still feels relatively new in a new language was really funny.”
Over the years, numerous other indie artists have transformed their tracks into radio station songs for The Sims, including Snail Mail with “Pristine” and Car Seat Headrest with “Not What I Needed.” Even Tegan and Sara got to join in the fun with “Stop Desire.” Whoever is responsible for the game’s pop culture nods, they certainly deserve a raise.
