David Balfe, the Dublin multi-hyphenate who makes music under the name For Those I Love, has a new single out today. "Of The Sorrows" is the first For Those I Love track since the project's 2021 self-titled debut, which won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize as the best Irish album of the year. Over top of an electronic slow-build that sounds like a city after dark, Balfe delivers spoken-word lyrics centered on the refrain, "Stay here in Ireland." It sounds a little like the Streets and a little like Real Lies.
Balfe offered this statement:
When I wrote "Of The Sorrows", it felt like I was bargaining with myself. It was one of the first songs I’d written to myself, for myself, while still trying to embody the feelings and thoughts of my closest peers. At its heart, "Of The Sorrows" is about a city rapidly boxing you out, and the choices you make in order to stay.
I started to shoot the video for "Of The Sorrows" on Christmas Day. I traded a couple hundred hours, a broken hard drive (had to start again), my sense of patience, and a broken leg I got on the last day of filming. But I could make peace with that deal. It felt good to give so much life to a project about a dying city.
Watch the Balfe-directed "Of The Sorrows" video below.
