After four years of silence, Young Fathers have returned with a new single called “Geronimo.”
Having won the Mercury Prize for their 2014 debut full-length, Dead, the Scottish trio reached a new level of international acclaim with 2018’s Cocoa Sugar. The LP landed on our Top Albums of the Year list, with the track “In My View” also finding a spot amongst our Top Songs of the Year. Following intensive touring behind the record, Young Fathers entered an extended hiatus.
Today, that break ends with the release of “Geronimo.” The first product of “a run of uninhibited, open-ended studio sessions,” the song builds with a patient ferocity. It’s the angst of being moored in life’s struggles, the anxious thrill of facing the unknown, and the pure bliss of diving forward all in one. “Being a son, brother, uncle, father figure, I got to survive, and provide,” goes the spit-fire bridge. “My momma said, ‘You’ll never ever please your woman, but you’ll have a good time, trying.”
The band addressed that line directly in a press release, stating, “A good time trying. That’s what Ma said, she was smiling, but it was meant as a warning.” They continued,
“It’s a track about contrast, because life is contrast — pushing through, giving up, all at the same time. Wanting everything and then wanting nothing, then wanting everything again. It’s kind of reflective of where we are at the moment, trying to remember how to do this again. Trying to make music and all of the other stuff that comes along with it. Trying to forget all the bad bits, just trying to get somewhere. And that’s where we are right now, trying to get somewhere. It’s the tenderness in toil, we had expelled a bunch of stuff with a lot of drive and wilder energy beforehand but this one had focus. It widened the scope again for us personally, that’s where the real high comes from. We grew another arm. We surprised ourselves.”
Take a listen to Young Fathers’ “Geronimo” below.
