Nick Thorburn is releasing a new Islands album in a couple months, the project’s first new material since its pair of 2016 albums, Should I Remain Here, At Sea? and Taste. He announced Islomania last month with the single “(We Like To Do It) With The Lights On” and we talked to him about it and much more. Today, Thorburn is sharing another new Islands track called “Set The Fairlight,” a big, driving, poppy one that has an undercurrent of itchy anxiety pushing it along.

“This was the last song made for the album, written and recorded during the pandemic,” Thorburn said in a statement. “I suppose it’s vaguely about the feeling of anxiety and fear brought on by COVID. There’s separation (by a cemetery wall – grim!), isolation and the desire to reach out and touch someone. None of these themes were calculated or laboured over, though. Like most of my songwriting, I kind of let the subconscious take the wheel. I find I get to more interesting places when I’m not trying to steer the metaphors.”

Check it out below.

Islomania is out 6/11 via Royal Mountain Records. Pre-order it here.