Wolf Parade singer and keyboardist Spencer Krug has recorded a new solo version of “I’ll Believe in Anything” on piano. The Apologies to the Queen Mary track recently went viral after being used in a pivotal scene of the HBO romance series Heated Rivalry. Krug broke out his stripped-down rendition of the song during a Vancouver concert last month, and this version was recorded in a studio in response to how well it was received. Listen to it below.
“I’ve made a few different solo versions of this song over the years. This is easily the best one, second only to Wolf Parade’s rendition,” Krug wrote on Instagram. “I feel like I finally have a solo version of the song that I can bring to my solo sets, that I can sincerely stand behind, because it pays proper tribute to the Wolf Parade version—heartfelt, grandiose, cathartic, and a joy to play. I’m reminded of feelings I had two decades ago when first discovering what the song wanted to be.”
In an interview with Vulture, Krug and bandmate Dan Boeckner explained how their Wolf Parade song was licensed for Heated Rivalry, noting that the series creator and director Jacob Tierney outlined exactly how “I’ll Believe in Anything” would be used in the scene. “It felt really intentional,” said Krug. “You could tell he cared about the song, too. He wanted that song, which made it an easy yes. It wasn’t like, ‘Well, if this doesn’t work and they say no, we’ll ask a different band.’ I think if we said no, he would have had to change the script.”
Apologies to the Queen Mary was released in 2005 and given a deluxe reissue in 2016 when Wolf Parade returned after a long hiatus. In 2022, the band performed a series of shows during which they played the album in full. As for Krug, he released his debut solo album under his own name, Fading Graffiti, in 2021 and followed it up with 2022’s Twenty Twenty Twenty Twenty One.
Revisit Pitchfork’s 2016 interview with Spencer Krug about Wolf Parade’s return and read about “I’ll Believe in Anything” at No. 95 in The 200 Best Songs of the 2000s.
