JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW'S NEW SINGLE GONE OUT NOW
PREMIERED AS ANNIE MAC’S HOTTEST RECORD IN THE WORLD ON BBC RADIO 1
AVAILABLE NOW ON COLUMBIA RECORDS
“McMorrow has a soul voice to cherish” – Guardian
“The ever-shifting Irish singer-songwriter…it works” – Sunday Times, Hottest Tracks
“Pushing his music onto a different realm, whilst maintaining that recognisable emotional pull” – CLASH
Toronto, ON – November 3, 2020 – Gone is the brand new single from James Vincent McMorrow, which received its first play on Radio 1 as Annie Mac's Hottest Record in the World and is available now on Columbia Records. This follows recent single, I Should Go, with Kenny Beats (Idles, slowthai, Omar Apollo), whilst James has also confirmed details of an extensive world tour for 2021 – including a London date at Brixton Academy. Listen to Gone here.
Gone has the immediate feel of a breakthrough moment in James Vincent McMorrow's life. Produced by James alongside Paul Epworth and Moon Willis, the track builds from little more than sparse beats and intimate vocals into a pop song clouded by chaos, but actually about clarity ("I give less fucks than I used to / still give a lot of fucks").
Gone, says James, "Is about the disintegration of relationships. In my case, the disintegration of my relationship with myself. No song or lyric I’ve ever written has come as close to this one at capturing how I feel about life, how I hear it, my fear of it, my obsession with it, my belligerent belief that I can control it, my quiet acknowledgment in the middle of the night that I will never control a single thing. And there’s nothing wrong with any of it. There’s absolute beauty in embracing the chaos and the decay. I know I was exhausted pretending everything was all right."
Gone explores themes that are inherent to James Vincent McMorrow's upcoming album, and where he finds himself in 2020. The record was introduced earlier this year by Headlights, a track written not so much about life making sense, but making peace with the fact that nothing does. The track's soulful followup, I Should Go – recorded with fellow genre-collider, Kenny Beats – was a reminder of James' rare ability to move as easily between the worlds of hip-hop and R&B as he can the singer-songwriter roots of debut album, Early In The Morning, (which turned 10 this year). Gone may just be the biggest and boldest track James has released to date, but it's also entirely in line with an artist who has always written with startling clarity, and followed his inspiration simply wherever it takes him.
“I have more responsibilities, people and expectations around me than ever, and the world is constantly telling me to change and grow as a person,” he says. “But I don’t feel any more responsible or capable than I did when I was 18 years old. This album is about embracing the idea that it’s okay to not have things figured out."
It has, nonetheless, been quite the journey of figuring things out thus far: James is already a platinum-selling act, who has independently clocked up over 750 million streams, reached #1 in his home of Ireland, and seen his music travel everywhere from Drake's Views to Game Of Thrones. Gone continues a thrilling new chapter from a fearless artist, now giving less fucks than he used to.
UK/EU Tour Dates 2021:
March 16 - Leisureland, Galway (Ireland)
March 18 - Milk Market, Limerick (Ireland)
March 19 - The Telegraph Building, Belfast (Ireland)
March 20 - Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow (UK)
March 22 - O2 Ritz, Manchester (UK)
March 23 - O2 Academy Brixton, London (UK)
March 25 - Stollwerck, Cologne (Germany)
March 26 - Le Trianon, Paris (France)
March 27 - Het Depot vzw, Leuven (Belgium)
March 29 - Batschkapp, Frankfurt (Germany)
March 31 - Grünspan, Hamburg (Germany)
April 1 - Metropol, Hamburg (Germany)
April 2 - Vega, Copenhagen (Denmark)
April 5 - Den Atelier, Luxembourg City (Luxembourg)
April 6 - Paradiso, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
April 8 - O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol (UK)
April 9 - The O2 Institute, Birmingham (UK)
April 17 - Olympia Theatre, Dublin (Ireland)
April 18 - Olympia Theatre, Dublin (Ireland)
