One of Paste’s top artists of 2020 is having a pretty good 2021, too: On the heels of a statement-making set at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, D.C.-based rock songwriter (and in-demand producer) Bartees Strange has shared a new track, “Weights,” which will appear on the forthcoming deluxe version of his breakout debut album.
Next Friday, Oct. 1, on the one-year anniversary of his widely acclaimed 2020 standout LP Live Forever, Strange will release Live Forever Deluxe Edition, featuring reworks of two album tracks: “Flagey God” and “Kelly Rowland.” The former becomes the chilled-out “Flagey God Redux,” while the latter becomes “Free Kelly Rowland,” with a feature from buzzy hip-hop duo Armand Hammer.
Strange wrote and recorded “Weights” earlier this year with Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip, but the track would have fit in well on Live Forever. Both Strange’s vocals and the instrumental’s propulsive art-rock evoke Bloc Party, but his lyrics are more moody and pensive, looking back on a romantic connection that fell apart. “Timing’s not a friend sometimes,” he sings, his hurt and regret accentuated by synth backing fit for a Robert Smith vocal. A fleeting acoustic breakdown comes and goes in what feels like an instant, with Strange going full Kele Okereke in the track’s heart-squeezing climax.
“This is about the ones that got away,” Strange says of “Weights” in a statement. “Going back and forth in my head about relationships that could have happened, missing that it didn’t, and finally realizing I gotta let the weight of it all go.”
Watch the lyric video for “Weights” below and see the details of Live Forever Deluxe Edition further down. You can preorder the record right here.
Live Forever Deluxe Edition Tracklist:
01. Jealousy
02. Mustang
03. Boomer
04. In A Cab
05. Free Kelly Rowland (ft. Armand Hammer)
06. Stone Meadows
07. Flagey God
08. Mossblerd
09. Far
10. Fallen For You
11. Ghostly
12. Weights
13. Flagey God Redux
Live Forever Deluxe Edition Album Art:
