james king is back with a spellbinding new single, “deluge” released June 18. As a misty concoction of poetic lines scribbled out, this single turns the artist’s insightful, artistic and creative abstractions into music. As someone who loves to analyze, I can see that the lines have enough relevance to each other to belong in one mesmerizing piece.
“deluge” opens with a cold and an almost unsettling emptiness, a canvas waiting to be filled. Then, acoustic guitar melodies unfurl, their gentle strumming echoing like a sparkling stream. They create a hypnotic groove that lulls you into a state of serene contemplation. These intertwine with shimmering piano lines that ripple like a ribbon swaying in the wind.
king’s voice emerges from this cloudy mist, surprising us with his deep vocals bathed in reverb. He sings in layers, his voice echoing and fading, creating a sense of vastness and open space. He urges you to unleash your lost soul through the song’s lyrical ambiguity and the space to project your own emotions and experiences onto the music.
The accompanying music video on YouTube further enhances the song’s dreamlike quality. We see king walking along a stream to perch himself on different rocks, his fingers coaxing out the melancholic repetitive melody on his guitar. The scene is a perfect visual metaphor for the song like a quiet reflection amidst the flow of nature. Interspersed with these shots are images of king walking on vast, green hills, their expansive beauty rolling into the emotional landscape of the song.
james king’s “deluge” is a song that defies definition. Find your truth through your interpretations of “deluge.”
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Review by Naomi Joan