Four years is a long ass time, especially in the world of music so readily available we forget to stop and breathe. But for King Tuff, the ear-splitting neck-breaking force of nature that’ll shred a smile off your face, that time was essential. “I didn’t even know what I wanted to do anymore,” says Kyle Thomas, the brainchild behind the moniker. “But I still had this urge-this feeling-like there was this possibility of something else I could be doing… and then I just followed that possibility. To me, that’s what songwriting, and art in general, is about.”

“The Other,” King Tuff’s first single since 2014’s Black Moon Spell, is nothing like you’ve ever heard him do. Soothing, self-reflective, and brimming with a sense of despair that’ll tug at your insides until you’ve cried yourself into a puddle, the track is stripped down, melodic King Tuff at his best. No electrifying Stratocaster. No pulsating drums. Instead, a delicate pairing of keys and synth-driven harmonies and lovely guitars washed over some of KT’s most personal lyrics: “No reason to be alive at all, as far as I can tell / ‘cept for one small detail like a distant ringing bell / And it keeps on calling out to me like a lost forgotten lover / So I blast off down the shoulder to go looking for The Other.”

“‘The Other’ is basically where songs come from. It’s the hidden world. It’s the mystery. It’s the invisible hand that guides you whenever you make something. It’s the thing I had to rediscover-the sort of voice I had to follow-to bring me back to making music again in a way that felt true and good.”

So press play on this gem, and keep your ears peeled for news of an upcoming album. Though nothing’s been announced yet, we’re bracing for more. –Maya Eslami

Photo: Olivia Bee