When SUPER-Hi links up with Luke Spiller, you don’t just get a cover — you get a full-blown reinvention. Their take on “Somebody That I Used To Know” is the kind of collaboration that makes perfect sense once you hear it. On one side, you’ve got SUPER-Hi’s George Tizzard and Rick Parkhouse — the masterminds behind the breezy, feel-good glow of “Following The Sun,” and specialists in turning any track into a sunlit escape. On the other hand, Luke Spiller — the electrifying frontman who first crossed paths with them nearly a decade ago when they co-wrote The Struts’ breakout hit “Could Have Been Me.” Different lanes, same instinct for drama and melody.
The original Gotye hit was famously stark and aching — a breakup anthem soaked in bitterness and disbelief. Fourteen years on, SUPER-Hi and Spiller dust it off and give it a different pulse. The sorrow is still there — Spiller leans all the way into the emotional confusion and sting of lost love — but it’s reframed. Instead of icy detachment, there’s warmth flickering beneath the surface.
SUPER-Hi lace the track with their signature glow: bright synths, buoyant rhythm, and that unmistakable summer-afterglow atmosphere. It feels like heartbreak viewed through golden-hour light. The pain hasn’t disappeared — it’s just been processed. Spiller’s voice soars with theatrical flair, carrying the weight of someone wounded but no longer crumbling. The delivery is resilient, like he’s standing at the shoreline instead of drowning in it.
And the music video? Curveball.
Rather than leaning into colorful, sun-drenched visuals, the duo opts for a black-and-white aesthetic. It’s stripped-back, moody, and cinematic. Spiller drifts along quiet English backroads, headphones on, heading toward the sea. No dramatic confrontations. No obvious narrative twist. Just a solitary figure chasing clarity. It’s introspective, understated, and surprisingly powerful. The contrast between SUPER-Hi’s radiant sonic identity and the monochrome visuals works — it underscores the emotional duality at play.
What could’ve been an unlikely pairing actually feels inevitable. Both acts understand nostalgia — not as something to replicate, but something to reshape. Together, they transform a modern classic into something that feels both reflective and refreshingly alive.
If the original was the sound of heartbreak in real time, this version feels like the moment you finally exhale.
