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Oct 13, 2022 By Joey Arnone Photography by Roxy Blocksdorf

Baltimore singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer Julien Chang has shared a new song, “Competition’s Friend,” in addition to sharing a live video for the song. It is the latest release from his forthcoming album, The Sale, which will be out on November 4 via Transgressive. Listen to the song and view the video below.

In a press release, Chang states: “‘Competition’s Friend’ can be seen as the soundtrack to a last ditch effort to overcome the deadlock of self-alienation: ecstasy against ambivalence. The setting is a world of resumes, interviews, internships, ‘networks’—in other words, a world of papers in which one is always examining oneself, not really as a ‘self,’ but rather as a symbolic outward-facing figure, of whose virtue and competency someone else must always still be convinced. The song tries to work through these frustrations before coming finally to a fantastic escape: in the last two minutes we reach the ecstatic heights from which such small and detailed self-scrutiny can be overcome, if not forgotten.”

Upon announcement of the new album in July, Chang shared the single “Marmalade,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. He later shared the album track “Time and Place” and “Snakebit.”

Chang’s debut album, Jules, came out in 2019 via Transgressive.

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