Marcus King has revealed a second single from his forthcoming album, Young Blood. Reflecting the themes of an album on which King wrestles with addiction and grief, Rescue Me pockets itself in a mean groove and sees the South Carolina guitar sensation lay down a blazing slide solo on electric guitar.
There’s a darkness to that fuzz riff and a gospel quality to the lyrics. Rescue Me is King in search of redemption. When he opens the song with, “Hold me down, don’t let me get any higher / Turn me around, pull me away from the fire,” there is no question where the track is headed.
“Rescue Me cuts a little deeper than the rest for me,” King said. “This song is a literal cry for help, one of the least metaphorical tracks on the record and a memory that’s difficult to relive each night but is important to remember.”
King recorded Young Blood with producer Dan Auerbach at Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the second time that King has hooked up with Auerbach for a solo album, with the Black Keys man producing 2019’s superlative El Dorado.
As a recording artist, King’s career has gone from strength to strength in recent years. He was nominated for a Grammy for El Dorado, and has recently announced a signature guitar with Gibson based on his ‘Big Red’ ES-345, and a signature Orange MK Ultra head, the first US-made guitar amp in the British brand’s history.
But the past few years have been quite salty for King. He has made no secret of some of his troubles and says that these hard times have informed his new album.
“I was going through a lot during the album with addictions, breakups, and addictions because of breakups. I was overindulging in everything,” King said. “It’s not a big secret to my friends. I was in a real rough place for a while. I was trying to process the death of family members and I was on the wrong medications.”
King has released two versions of Rescue Me. One is the studio version, the other was performed live at the studio with Chris St. Hilaire on the drums and Nick Movshon playing bass, both of whom played on Young Blood. Last month, King shared Hard Working Man, a song inspired by the tour grind and dedicated to the people who part with their hard-earned dollars to see him play.
Young Blood is out on the 26 August through American Records, and available to preorder now.
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