As you might’ve heard, the Christmas albums are arriving earlier than ever this year. That includes Andrew Bird’s Hark! this Friday. An expanded project based on last year’s Christmas EP of the same name, Hark! is a mixture of standards, holiday-adjacent covers, and originals. Today, Bird shares one of those originals: “Christmas In April,” a song that a press release (probably accurately?) asserts is the first COVID-inspired Christmas song ever.

Bird wrote the song back in April of this year, during lockdown. When he announced Hark! he’d actually already shared some thoughts about this one:

There’s an original tune I wrote in April during the most disorienting phase of the pandemic, when I couldn’t help but wonder where we’ll be when the holidays come, if we could be together or not. I’ve been writing a lot of songs inspired by this uninspiring predicament. Let’s hope they all become obsolete as soon as possible.

“Christmas In April” has a fittingly lonesome sound for a year in which we’ve spend holidays and milestones communicating with family via Zoom. Amidst thoughts of wanting to hold a loved one and stand (presumably closer than social distancing guidelines would suggest) under a mistletoe, Bird also gets a little meta: “I’m writing a song/ About Christmas/ In April this year/ So I’m not sure what to think about that.” Check it out below.

Hark! is out 10/30.