BEST NEW TRACKS: JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW "WHEN I LEAVE"

Even after putting out the spectacular Post Tropical earlier this year, Irish crooner James Vincent McMorrow is still cranking out best new tracks with "When I Leave."

Recorded while touring in support of Post Tropical, "When I Leave" is a sprawling, synth-driven cut that finds McMorrow channeling his inner-James Blake. The song seems to progress through a number of phases, starting out almost as an ambient track with only a brooding synth-line and ping-ponging Medieval harmonies. It ends with a post-punk, wall-to-wall noise thingy after passing through several other rooms. McMorrow sounds full of confidence and conviction, even though the track is really just about going out alone and dancing like no ones watching. "When I Leave" makes such outings sound way better than they do on paper.  

JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW "WHEN I LEAVE"

So what exactly is this, besides a song you can download for free? Here's what JVM had to say about "When I Leave":

"I've been recording when I can over the summer, on the floors of festival dressing rooms, in hotels, I've been waiting for everyone to fall asleep so I can track vocals in the back lounge of the bus. Making Post Tropical definitely lit a fire. There's no plan for any of it, I have an album in the world and it is rightfully taking up a lot of my energy, but I've plenty energy to go around, I'd like to start putting out some ideas while the ink is still wet, I want people to hear them, to know what they are when we play them live during the autumn Euro and US tours."

Disclaimer, they're not polished, nothing recorded on the road ever could be, a lot of time spent removing crazy back ground sounds from vocals etc. That's the point though I guess, snapshots.

When I was in college I'd go out a lot, but I wasn't the guy that was the centre of everyone's attention, I was usually standing awkwardly in the corner. But just because you're standing in the corner doesn't mean you don't love to dance. That's what this song is about, I guess: dance like no one's watching.

If you haven't listened to Post Tropical yet, jump on it, 'cause it looks like we've got more music from James Vincent McMorrow on the way.

About Calvin Paradise

Calvin Paradise manages to live a productive life despite a childhood of home schooling and suffering from what some doctors have called the worst case of Groucho Marx's Syndrome in recorded history.