Bruce Hornsby Enlists Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Blake Mills for New Song: Listen

Bruce Hornsby has teamed up with Ezra Koenig (of Vampire Weekend) and Blake Mills for a new song called “Sidelines.” The track was co-written by Mills and co-produced by Ariel Rechtshaid, and it leads Hornsby’s upcoming album ’Flicted, which arrives May 27 via his own Zappo Productions and Thirty Tigers. Check out “Sidelines” below, along with its accompanying music video directed by Kitty Ninon Anais Faingold. Scroll down for the tracklist and Hornsby’s upcoming tour dates.

“‘Sidelines’ is a song about hysteria in various forms, starting with the Salem witch trials of the 1600s then to the present-day pandemic-era panic,” Hornsby said in press materials. “It features angular melodic content vocally and a pointillistic middle instrumental section.”

Of the video, Faingold added: “I wanted the video to read like visual poetry by using allegorical imagery and a stream of consciousness method of working. I also wanted to give it a hand-crafted feel to emphasize the sensitivity of the song and vulnerability of the lyrics, so I worked with watercolors on thin computer paper which I then took photos of. This gave the animation a lot of texture and a level of DIY analogue imperfection which I think works well with the idea of vulnerability and human emotion.”

’Flicted was recorded last summer. It completes a trilogy, started with 2019’s Absolute Zero and 2020’s Non-Secure Connection. The three albums are based on film cues Hornsby composed for writer and director Spike Lee. “The album title ’Flicted relates to this strange time in which we live, when the world is basically, well, ’flicted,” Hornsby added.

The new record was co-produced by Hornsby and Tony Berg, and features additional production from Rechtshaid and Wayne Pooley, as well as a duet with Danielle Haim and contributions from composer Rob Moose.

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Bruce Hornsby: ’Flicted

’Flicted:

01 Bruce Hornsby / Ezra Koenig: “Sidelines” [ft. Blake Mills]
02 Bruce Hornsby: “Tag”
03 Bruce Hornsby: “The Hound”
04 Bruce Hornsby: “Too Much Monkey Business”
05 Bruce Hornsby: “Maybe Now”
06 Bruce Hornsby: “Bucket List”
07 Bruce Hornsby: “Days Ahead” [ft. Danielle Haim]
08 Bruce Hornsby: “Lidar”
09 Bruce Hornsby: “Is This It”
10 Bruce Hornsby: “Had Enough”
11 Bruce Hornsby: “Simple Prayer II” [ft Z. Berg, Ethan Gruska and Rob Moose]
12 Bruce Hornsby: “Point Omega”