Search The Line of Best Fit
Search The Line of Best Fit
Marlon williams river rival press shot 2022

Marlon Williams shares new single "River Rival"

13 July 2022, 13:13 | Written by Cerys Kenneally

Marlon Williams has released new cut "River Rival" as the third taster of his forthcoming album My Boy.

"River Rival" is accompanied by a Steve Gullick-directed video, and will appear on Williams' My Boy album with earlier releases "Thinking Of Nina" and "My Boy".

The New Zealand singer/songwriter said of the new outing, "This tune began with an idle google search. The Latin noun ‘rivalis’ means people competing for the same source of water. That got me excited and seemed to hit upon a central occupation of the record as a whole. Resource scarcity, very generally construed, is at the heart of most conflict: economically, materially, socially. Musically, it started out as a bleary-eyed Nick Drake-esque acoustic rambler but somehow, perhaps counterintuitively, it felt too heavy that way so with a bit of fussing and redressing (largely in pre-production with Mark Perkins) it gradually morphed into the cyclical synth rock-roller before you. Under Tom Healy’s guiding hand, Cass (Basil) and Paul (Taylor) then built up the rhythmic intensity, each stanza pushing the point a little more urgently every time."

My Boy will follow 2020's Plastic Boquet collaborative album with Kacy & Clayton, and will be his first solo album since 2018's Make Way for Love.

"River Rival" is out now. Marlon Williams' My Boy album will arrive via Dead Oceans on 9 September, and is available to pre-order now. He'll play London's KOKO on 26 October. Visit marlonwilliams.co.nz for tickets.
Share article
Email

Get the Best Fit take on the week in music direct to your inbox every Friday

Read next