Aaron Powell has been releasing music as Fog Lake since 2013. His most recent full-length was last year’s Dragonchaser, and he’s following that up in a couple months with a new album called Captain. Powell started the project in his rural hometown in Newfoundland and, though the musician has relocated to Montréal, his next album is still haunted by the ghosts of his old stomping grounds. Its lead single, “California,” is about an entirely different place altogether, or rather it’s about the vastness of distance and the bitterness associated with a location that you can’t follow someone to.

With waterlogged pianos and Powell’s characteristically swallowed-up vocals, he reflects on a relationship that ended after the other party moved away and let the connection slowly disintegrate. “There’s a part of me that never wants to see you again/ And there’s a part of me that needs you now,” he sings. “I don’t know why my brain was wired fifty fifty but now seems like I’m the only one oblivious.” It’s a perfect insular ballad, each plink both a stab in the heart but also a way of moving forward.

Listen below.

Captain is out 7/5 via Stack Your Roster.