Johnny Depp has dropped his new single The Death and the Resurrection – a cover of the 2003 Killing Joke track that sees him team up once again with guitar legend Jeff Beck.
The track was announced via the actor’s Instagram account, and is lifted from the pair’s upcoming collaborative album, 18, which is due July 15.
It’s a fairly faithful take on the original, though it slightly tweaks the introduction’s dynamics so that the electric guitars hit harder when they finally arrive around the one minute mark.
Depp and Beck spend much of the track’s five-and-a-half minute runtime plugging away at the relentless riff that brutally bounces between two notes, augmenting the track with some off-kilter embellishments and a handful of heavy-hitting chordal passages.
It’s a full-on five minutes, with the only reprieve coming from the short interlude section that precedes the finale’s show-stopping guitar solo.
The Death and the Resurrection is the latest track to be released by Depp and Beck after the pair teamed up for a handful of shows across England earlier this year, shortly after the actor’s publicized defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
At the Gateshead show, Beck confirmed the imminent arrival of a joint record that he and Depp had both worked on.
Shortly after the tease, the news was made official, and it was announced that 18 – which had been in the works since 2019 – would be dropping later this month.
At the time of the announcement, Depp said, “It's an extraordinary honor to play and write music with Jeff, one of the true greats and someone I am now privileged enough to call my brother.”
“I haven't had another creative partner like [Depp] for ages,” Beck added. “He was a major force on this record. I just hope people will take him seriously as a musician because it's a hard thing for some people to accept that Johnny Depp can sing rock and roll.”
The first single, This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr, was released at the same time, and is a Depp original.
The two tracks will be joined by a host of other covers, including renditions of the Beach Boys’ Caroline, No, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and The Velvet Underground’s Venus in Furs. One other of Depp’s originals, Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade, also makes the cut.
