James Blake is back. After closing out 2017 with a gorgeous cover of Don McLean's "Vincent," the London-based singer/producer has returned with his first original solo song since 2016's The Colour in Anything.
After premiering "If the Car Beside You Moves Ahead" during the latest episode of his BBC Radio 1 residency, Blake uploaded an Alexander Brown-directed music video of the song to his YouTube channel.
The glitchy track revolves around haunting pitch-shifted vocals that repeat: "If the car beside you moves ahead / As much as it feels as though you're dead / You're not going backwards." Then, Blake comes in with deeper, more natural sounding vocals that deliver the cryptic line: "Chemical day so I can draw / Conclusions I have come to take as law."
On first listen, the song veers towards the more experimental end of the James Blake spectrum—in contrast with the slower, more straightforward tracks he recently debuted during a run of live shows in California.
You can watch the video for "If the Car Beside You Moves Ahead" above. If you missed it, you can see his cover of "Vincent" below.
