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Jul 23, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by El Hardwick

London-based artist Naima Bock is releasing a new album, Below a Massive Dark Land, on September 27 via Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction. Now she has shared another new song from it, “Gentle,” via a music video. Watch it below.

Bock had this to say about “Gentle” and its video in a press release: “I’ve lived with this song for a couple of years. It’s a kind of copy and paste of different sections of my life, each verse is a different version of myself or situation I was in. None of them link in reality, but they fit together in this song, which leaves me with a sense of union and satisfaction. I would like to allow for the listener to take the lyrics in whatever way is relevant to them. I can say it’s my favorite song to play and one of my favorite songs that I’ve written. It means a lot to me.”

Ellie Wintour and Sophie Lincoln directed the video and collectively had this to say: “Our jumping off point for the video began with the lyrics ‘You want me to be gentle, fragile, you want me to stay young. I pray that I stay gentle, fragile, I pray that I stay.’ We developed Naima a character playing on femininity as facade, but also her sense of easygoing style. In using two-dimensional substitutes for three-dimensional objects – mixing worlds of the real and make-believe – we tried to play on the song’s themes of expectation, assigned roles, and conformity.”

When the album was announced, Bock shared two new songs from it, “Kaley” and “Further Away,” and announced some tour dates. “Kaley” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Below a Massive Dark Land is Bock’s second album, the follow-up to 2022’s debut album, Giant Palm. Jack Osborne and Joe Jones produced the album, with additional production and arrangement by Oliver Hamilton and Bock. It was recorded at The Crypt in north London.

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