The ‘90s are back -- there’s simply no denying this. Rockers are taking pages out of Pavement's playbook, while electronic groups are looking back at the trip-hoppers of yore.

Belgian group Hooverphonic do the latter on today's free MP3, covering Massive Attack’s groundbreaking tune 'Unfinished Sympathy' in spectacular fashion.

Back in 1991, the Bristol-based band focused on a spoon-driven beat and the sultry vocals of Shara Nelson. (By the way, you should definitely check out the video, because its concept has been copied by countless bands to date.) As it turns out, Hooverphonic’s new singer, 25-year-old Noémie Maria Alexis Ghislaine Wolfs, is a perfect fit for the tune.

“A very important alternative radio station asked us for a cover of a Massive Attack song for the 20th anniversary of ‘Blue Lines’, their first album,” bass player and main songwriter Alex Callier tells Diffuser.fm.

“At first we thought it was a bit strange, considering we started off as a trip-hop band ourselves," Callier adds. "So our initial answer was ‘no.’ I was working in Italy at the time with a friend who's a fantastic piano player and suddenly got the idea to do a very intimate piano vocal version. I called our piano player Remko Kühne straightaway and when I got back home we went to the radio station and played the basic version.”

From note one, Hooverphanic’s rendition sounds like a Bond theme song. The strings, arranged by Cedric Murrath, wind wistfully around Wolfs‘ husky vocals as a solo piano takes us down the coast of Gibraltar. Yeah, it’s that good.

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