Marcus King has dropped Rescue Me, the latest single to be taken from his upcoming studio album, Young Blood.
While it employs a similar dose of electric guitar ear candy as found on the album’s lead single, Hard Working Man, King dials down the tempo for a more swaggering entry to the Young Blood tracklist, with Rescue Me serving up smoldering six-string progressions and a bubbly open-string verse riff.
Unsurprisingly, there are a few gnarly guitar solos thrown into the mix too, which see King sport a slide and later introduce a wah pedal for a raucous rally of blistering blues notes.
The Rescue Me music video can be found below.
According to King, Rescue Me is “one of the least metaphorical tracks” on his forthcoming album, and was written with one of his hardest personal memories in mind.
“Rescue Me cuts a little deeper than the rest for me,” King reflected. “This song is a literal cry for help, one of the least metaphorical tracks on the record and a memory that’s difficult to relive each night but is important to remember.”
He added, “This is also one of the first times I collaborated with our good friend, the amazingly talented artist/writer Andrew Gabbard.”
The message of Rescue Me sounds as though it will relate thematically with the rest of Young Blood, with King stating the record will explore a number of personal topics.
In a previous statement, King revealed, “I was going through a lot during the album with addictions, breakups and addictions because of breakups.
“I was overindulging in everything. It's not a big secret to my friends. I was in a real rough place for a while. I was trying to process the death of family members and I was on the wrong medications.”
Young Blood will be King’s first album since 2020’s El Dorado and his fifth record overall, following Soul Insight (2015), The Marcus King Band (2016) and Carolina Confessions (2018).
Like El Dorado, Young Blood – which was recorded entirely in live takes – was produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auberach, who said of King, “He's the real deal. Marcus has Southern soul as part of his foundation.
Of the record, Auberach added, “These songs are live performances. The whole damn thing is live – the solos and everything.”
A live performance of Rescue Me – which also features the album's session musicians, drummer Chris St. Hilaire and bass player Nick Movshon – can be found above.
Young Blood is available to preorder now ahead of its release on August 26 via American Records/Republic/Snakefarm
