King Tuff, known to his parents as Kyle Thomas, used to make wild, wooly, riff-heavy garage rock. But on his forthcoming album The Other, he appears to be going in a completely different direction, veering instead toward woozy, expansive psychedelia and lush studio-pop. We’ve already posted his videos for “The Other,” “Psycho Star,” and “Raindrop Blue,” and now he’s also shared another new one called “Thru The Cracks.”

The Other features some heavyweight guest contributors, including Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin. And on “Thru The Cracks,” Thomas is lucky to have the assistance of Jenny Lewis, who adds luminous backing vocals and generally classes things up. The song is a warm, starry-eyed folk-rock strummer with a bit of T. Rex’s flower-child glam-rock in it.

The song is a meaningful one to Thomas. Here’s what he says about it:

About two years ago I lost a good friend to suicide. He loved the Beatles, Nirvana, Burroughs, bumming smokes, stealing his parents records and selling em to me… he was a complex character, a sweetheart with poor social skills, a musical genius with no outlet. He was pretty damn misunderstood in this world and struggled for a long, long time.

I had this song laying around for 7 years or so, but sadly it wasn’t until he was gone that it came into focus and I realized what it was all about. It’s one of my favorites I’ve ever written, and one of the truest. And it all comes back again to this thing, the Other. Maybe death is just a passageway to something else. Maybe in death we finally, once and for all, join the Other. I dunno, but I think Jeremiah is probably hanging out on the metaphysical stoop right now with none other than the Other itself.

Wherever you are bud, I’m singing to you

And here’s the song:

The Other is out 4/13 on Sub Pop.