Our What's That Song? series highlights music from commercials, movies, television, and video games. These are the songs that get stuck in our heads, whether we like it or not.
The trailer: Donald Glover's acclaimed FX series Atlanta is gearing up for its second run (titled Atlanta Robbin' Season), and the network is already getting fans hyped ahead of the March 1 premiere (as if we weren't already). A longer trailer featuring Sonder's "Too Fast" was released during the Golden Globes, but this 30-second clip, titled "Heavy Rotation," highlights the show's surrealism and regional settings. In the clip, Glover's character, Earn, literally rotates between several locations, including Magic City, a basketball court, and his own home before disappearing into the Atlanta skyline. Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) and Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) seem to appear in the background.
The song: Though still a teenager, London singer-songwriter and producer Yellow Days (George Van Den Broek) has already captivated audiences with his commanding baritone and dreamy, lovelorn tracks. Though his voice has a similar grittiness, Van Den Broek is more of an outright romantic than King Krule, and his tales of longing and loss have a truly universal quality. He's also a versatile songwriter, and both his EP, Harmless Melodies, which features "Gap in the Clouds," and his debut album, Is Everything Okay in Your World? are a hazy blend of bluesy rock, trip-hop, R&B, and jazz.
"It's about being in a depressed state for so long that your sky is full of clouds, but then that special someone makes a gap in those clouds and they can light up your world again," Van Den Broek explained when "Gap in the Clouds" was released in November 2016. "Someone beautiful came into my life and showed me how to love again and that's what the tune is for me."
Though still just getting started, Yellow Days has already stressed the importance of not losing himself in the face of early career success.
"A lot of artists get fed into the system and they stop acting like musicians,” he told Pigeons & Planes in October. “Instead, they act like businessmen and then their music ends up commercial because they lose sight of their role. Their role isn’t to PR themselves, it’s to make music. I stand by that heavily. You have to stay in touch with the anxious teenager inside of you. If you stare at spreadsheets too much, you’ll kill that."
Watch the Atlanta teaser trailer and listen to "Gap in the Clouds" above. Read our feature on Yellow Days, and check out our video on everything we know about Atlanta's second season below.
