Handsome Young Ladies give modern take on Sade’s “Smooth Operator”

Rochester, New York’s Handsome Young Ladies is not your average cover band. The power trio works hard to re-create and bring new life to multi-genre hits of the last 40 years.

Handsome Young Ladies consists of Chicago import Sam Swanson (of Midwest Blue, Dormlife, and Boomjuice) on both guitar and vocals, bassist Anthony Carvalho (of Red Letter Statement and Praxia) and studio producer Jesse Sprinkle (of Poor Old Lu, Demon Hunter, Dead Poetic, and Bluebrick Recordings) on drums and back up vocals.

The band is getting ready to release their debut album, We Got It Covered. It features spirited covers and entirely new takes on hit songs from bands like Queen, Sade, Elton John, Madonna, and more. Work started on the album back in December of 2017, before finally being finished this past summer.

Today, we’re excited to team up with Handsome Young Ladies to premiere their new, modern cover of Sade’s “Smooth Operator.”

“I’m a die-hard and loyal Sade fan. I’d say borderline obsessed to be honest. Most of her fans are, you know. With Sade, it’s like you’re all in or all out. You know the catalog inside and out, otherwise you find her as forgettable background music. Except for that one hook to that one song ‘Smooth Operator’ from 1984 that you can’t help repeating. Re-arranging and recording this song was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in the studio. Jesse Sprinkle’s nasty rhythm was just so dead on and breathed a new life into this 25 year-old gem of a song, along with the loud distorted jazz chords. I hope it resonates well with the new and old generation of music lovers,” explains Swanson.

Explaining the video for Handsome Young Ladies, Swanson explains, “In the same way with Sade’s love for clothes and a natural sense of elegance with all of her music videos, we knew we couldn’t cheap out on the costumes or storyline for this production. When scripting the video with Shimon Galiley, we took an uncommon approach by leading the main character into situations that were just provocative enough yet left intentionally vague to let the viewer’s mind fill in the blanks. What I really like about this Music Video is that you can draw your own conclusion from it. In most senses, it’s interpretation is left up to the imagination.”

Recorded/engineered by Sprinkle and mixed/mastered by his brother Aaron Sprinkle (New Found Glory, Anberlin, Story of the Year), We Got It Covered will be available everywhere on May 17th via the band’s own label Alarm Clock Revolution.

Below you’ll find the album artwork and track-listing.

Artwork: