Watch Miley Cyrus cover Lana Del Rey's 'Summertime Sadness'

By Mikael Wood

Nov. 12, 2013 12 AM PT

As pop stars, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey approach the same problem -- how to hold our attention -- from opposite directions.

Cyrus, of course, has left no stone unturned (or foam finger unwagged) in her determination this year to tell us everything we could ever possibly want to know about her. Del Rey, meanwhile, works to limit information about herself in an attempt to keep us guessing -- a strategic rarity in the Internet Age.

Yet the two singers sound like they might be soul sisters in a new cover of Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness” that Cyrus recorded for the BBC’s Live Lounge. (Watch video of the performance below.)

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This summer, Del Rey had a top 10 hit with a pumped-up remix of the song (originally from her 2012 album, “Born to Die”) by French DJ Cédric Gervais. But Cyrus does away with the club beat for a moody acoustic take that emphasizes her smoky vocals; more than anything, the result evokes Cyrus’ own smash power ballad “Wrecking Ball.”

Maybe Del Rey will take that one up in the coming weeks?