SEBASTIAN - RUN FOR ME (FEAT. GALLANT)

On his long-awaited new single, "Run For Me", French DJ traces a doomed romance with alt r&b laced with darkness.

Love really is a funny thing. It's all sweetness and light, cuddles and Oxytocin, kittens and rainbows. Then the bottom drops out, and all of the demons from Hell emerge, libidinous energies crawling up from our ID, pushing us towards danger, obsession, escapism, hedonism, and a blackened rainbow of all of our darkest emotions. It calls the idea of the "love song" into question. Are all of those ballads promising undying devotion, all of someone's beauty and wonderful qualities truly realistic? Or is that merely focusing on the bright side, trying to ignore the malevolent hordes that are quick to follow in their wake?

"Run For Me (feat. Gallant)" is a smooth, noirish alt r&b single, glittering with neon future production and Gallant's silken falsetto vocals. Sonically, it's all upbeat, major key and optimistic, destined for slow dances in dim, foggy nightclubs and school dances. Listen a little deeper, however, and you pick out Gallant's chorus refrain "Take one good look at the dark."

SEBASTIAN - RUN FOR ME (FEAT. GALLANT)

This dichotomy is perfectly summarized in "Run For Me"'s music video. Director Todd Tourso starts things off showing a young couple running from the police. It abruptly flashes back to show the pair cruising along idyllically on a road trip, in love with each other and the open road. The peacefulness isn't enough for them, however, as the road trip gets wilder, more out of control, until the duo is finally running from the law, Tokyo drift style, sparking rims and spiking adrenaline.

You wouldn't necessarily be able to tell, though, simply listening to Sebastian. Musically, it sounds like the best glowed-up future hip-hop/r&b that you would expect from someone who's done production work for Frank Ocean and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It'd sound right at home on your romantic mixtapes.

"Run For Me" is the lead single from Sebastian's long-awaited follow-up to 2011's Total. The French producer's done a ton of high profile production in the last 8 years, so expectations are running at a fever pitch. Judging from "Run For Me," we won't be disappointed. We Are: The Guard can't wait to hear the whole thing!

J. Simpson occupies the intersection between criticism, creativity, and academia. Based out of Portland, Or., he is the author of Forestpunk, an online journal/brand studying the traces of horror, supernatural, and the occult through music, fashion and culture. He plays in the dreamfolk band Meta-Pinnacle with his partner Lily H. Valentine, with whom he also co-founded Bitstar Productions, a visual arts collective focused on elevating Pop Culture to High Art.