Way back in 2014, Porter Robinson impressed the hell out of me with his debut album Worlds, which found the former teenage dubstep sensation pivoting into a synthetic universe of his own making. It was still electronic dance music of a sort, but somehow both poppier and proggier at the same time, inspired by anime and video games and the outer reaches of Robinson’s imagination. In the years immediately following that album, Robinson fell into such an intense state of writer’s block that he questioned whether he’d ever release music again. He started a ’90s rave side project called Virtual Self. He stared into the abyss. But eventually, inspiration for a Worlds follow-up finally struck.

Early last year Robinson returned with news of a new album called Nurture. Three singles emerged: “Get Your Wish” in January, “Something Comforting” in March, and “Mirror” in August. There was no release date at the time, and the pandemic ultimately allowed him more time to put some finishing touches on the project while also throwing an online festival called Secret Sky. Now it seems he’s finally ready to release Nurture for real.

The album will be out in April, and today we hear a fourth single. “Look At The Sky” is the first proper song on the album, a burst of sonic light and color following a scene-setting intro track. Like some of the other Nurture songs, it directly addresses his creative crisis: “Look at the sky, I’m still here/ I’ll be alive next year/ I can make something good.”

Check out the “Look At The Sky” video below.

Robinson shared this statement on the track:

“Look At The Sky” is fundamentally a song about hope. There’s no shortage of fuel for despair, but you can’t take meaningful action to improve things if you don’t have some belief that things might get better. That’s what hope is, and I think it’s an emotion worth nourishing. I wrote this song at my lowest point emotionally, when I thought I couldn’t make music anymore, and I wasn’t sure if my existence would have any meaning if I couldn’t make music. In the lyrics, I’m sort of imagining what life would be like once I was on the other side of all that fear and anxiety and sadness. I’m happy to report that it’s amazing on the other side of all this, and I’m so glad I had hope and persisted.

Nurture is out 4/23 via Mom+Pop. Pre-order it here.