Friday 5 April 2019

New Music: James Blake - Barefoot In The Park (feat. Rosalía)


Whilst it’s probably a bit early to start thinking about end of year / decade lists unless you’re me, (because I love lists, statistics and contrary to most creative types beliefs I actually enjoy treating music as a competitive sport) I can think of at least 8 records that could easily feature in my top 10 or 20 of 2019 already. One of those is James Blake’s Assume Form and my absolute favourite track from it is Barefoot In The Park featuring Rosalía. It’s a simply sublime song that despite it’s electronic sound appears to have roots in traditional Irish folk music, with a number of sources suggesting that the sample featured in the track is from the song Fill Fill A Rún Ó, recorded by a singer named Valerie Armstrong in 1972. (Click here to see the original)

Now the song is getting some more attention as James has released a video to support the track. Everything about this piece is just so gorgeous. Rosalía’s vocal’s are to die for giving me shivers every single time and the tender production is absolutely perfect. I’d go as far as saying this might even be my favourite song of the year so far.

On the face of it the video is just Rosalía and James strolling around and a bunch of kids doing the same, but there's an awful lot of symbolism in the video; a boy covered in roses being shot at in play, a dead dove, the children disappearing as they grow older, a burning car crash with children staring at it, the clouds opening to the heavens, adults forming an arch that the children go under, a beautiful butterfly flying towards the crash. It’s (possibly) saying something quite sad about love, becoming adults and the journey of life, but you can form your own opinion.

James Blake - Barefoot In The Park (feat. Rosalía)

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