Fans of Lorde’s rich, deep voice will be happy to hear her take on the Talking Heads’ “Take Me to the River,” which she released March 28 — her first single released in three years as part of a “Stop Making Sense” tribute album.

A mostly faithful rendition of the Talking Heads tune, Lorde’s version puts a new spin on it that makes the tune worth revisiting despite being perhaps too derivative.

Her vocal style suits the tune, much like Talking Heads’ frontman David Byrne’s did when his band released its 1978 cover.

Similar to how Byrne’s nervous, sing-talking energy added frustration and agitation to soul artist Al Green’s message of yearning, Lorde’s smoky, breathy vocal quality adds new character to the song, bringing out the song’s sexuality and sultry tension in a way Byrne’s more detached performance didn’t.

Her voice completes the longing conveyed in the song’s bridge: “Hug me, squeeze me, love me, tease me / Till I can’t, till I can’t, I can’t take no more.”

Her vocal quality bridges the gap between Green’s original soulful voice in his more stripped-down original version and the Talking Heads’ new-wave take on the song.

While the funky instrumentals add to the performance, Lorde’s vocals take center stage in the production, as opposed to the Talking Heads’ version, where Byrne’s vocals trade for attention with his band.

But it’s impossible not to notice the strange effects added to her voice, adding an almost bitrate quality to the cover, making some parts of it sound underwater. 

The effect might be fitting for a song about someone begging to be baptized, but comes off as strange or confusing.

Along with her release, Lorde shared a letter with a personal anecdote about the first time she heard the Talking Heads after her mom showed her a “grainy” video of Byrne performing, which explains the vocal effect — “It’s my interpretation of that pixellated spiritual experience.”

“I feel a portal open between me and the screen. Humor, lust, rhythm and ritual course through me. I don’t understand what I’m feeling, but I do understand that the band in the grainy video lives with the same strangeness that I do. My palms tingle. My insides are replaced,” Lorde wrote.

While the Talking Heads’ version starts with the iconic strong drum beat, Lorde’s version enters with an arpeggiating synth sound before introducing the bass rhythm and then her vocals.

Lorde fans who were disappointed with her 2021 album “Solar Power” because of its bright productions and themes about self-care, a huge departure from her regular angsty repertoire, might welcome this single, which could signal a return to her darker musical roots as she embraces her rich voice for her take on the song.

Lorde’s cover of “Take Me to the River” shows she’s not just interested in copy-pasting the masterpiece that Byrne already crafted for “More Songs About Buildings and Food;” rather, she intends on adding to it with her expressive voice, bringing out new themes and modernizing the Talking Heads’ sick synthesizer sounds.