Kid Brunswick - ‘Collide’ Review: Opening the gates to an era of his ‘best music yet’
Collide is the first single from Kid Brunswick in 2024, released on 29th February via Believe UK. A new era has dawned, as we open the gates to the hotly-anticipated The Fall: Part II.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Credit: Kid Brunswick 📸
If you ventured up to Bolton earlier in February for a special pop-up show, you got a taste of a new universe unfolding for the rising alt-rock star, known off-stage as Harry James. Fuelled by independence, experimentation and bringing back the rage.
Collide is the world’s first introduction to that universe. It’s the lead single from The Fall: Part II, a long-awaited follow-up to a concept project that started in May 2023.
The Fall: Part I featured massive singles Blow and Heaven Without You, which were shelved while the young artist cut ties with his label. Following its release, Kid Brunswick sold out a packed room at OMEARA London, with us dubbing it one of our favourite live shows of 2023.
Kid Brunswick told us: ‘Collide is a song about not being able to let go of someone that could ruin everything for you. It’s about staying with that person and drowning together.’
Impressively daring in ambition, it finds itself taking on a life of its own. There’s noticeably poignant songwriting as the narrative unfolds. Lyrically, it takes toxic codependency to new lengths: ‘And I still remember when we thought of suicide, so we could stay together’. Considering this was penned quickly after a breakup, the pain you hear is very real and it shows.
Contrasting dirty screams in the chorus and softer acoustic pining in the verses offer a dissociating experience. It’s unclear whether we’re supposed to drive at 100mph off a bridge or scream in the dead of night.
That instantaneous hit of emotion, whatever you may feel, is nothing new. Kid Brunswick has proven a talent for getting his message across. But, here, it’s the best it’s ever been. And fulfills a mission greater than he could’ve imagined, garnering a fist-clenching anthem ready for the masses.
With a clear progression in sound and production, what’s to come has never been so exciting, himself stating on multiple occasions ‘this is the best music I’ve made yet’. The music video provides an additional layer of immersion, evocative of the darkness being conveyed within the song.
We asked Kid Brunswick about the track in further detail:
‘Collide is just a sad song I wrote about someone I was in love with. I wrote it quite quickly after that relationship ended, I flew out to LA and kind of poured my heart out as soon as I got into the studio. I was recording in a huge house in the hills, so I think being in an environment which I’m not used to really brought my emotions to the surface.
The past year I’ve been getting new music ready and spending a lot of time in America. I’ve started collaborating more with people, letting myself take somewhat of a backseat when it comes to doing everything myself. I’ve met some great people out here in the states and I’m currently making the best music I could ever have hoped to make.’
The second wave of The Fall is on the horizon, not long now. If you haven’t been sucked into this dark and twisted world yet, now is your chance, before the world sends Kid Brunswick to the stratosphere. Nothing is stopping him now - carnage is about to be unleashed and not even we’re ready.
