Hypnotic drums and a soft but powerful bass help introduce Emily King’s “False Start,” the third single off her highly-anticipated fifth studio album, Special Occasion – due May 5th through ATO Records. Her vocals, gentle yet adamant and accompanied by label mate Nick Hakim, deliver an unclothed and vulnerable memorial to the experience that is trying, and failing, to escape the unrelenting warmth of a comfortable but lacking relationship.  

“I had recently experienced the feeling of going against my instincts, trying to quiet a voice inside me,” says King, “I wrote the song one day in the studio in L.A. I sat in front of the microphone and started with a line I’d had for so long, and the rest of the song all came out. It was very cathartic.” 

Special Occasion will be King’s first album in four years, with eleven tracks including the singles “This Year” and “Medal” that were released earlier in the year, and will be fully produced by longtime collaborator and fellow Grammy-nominee Jeremy Most. Throughout the album, entrancing meditations on the meaning of heartbreak and the potential for healing. 

With the release of Special Occasion, King is to undertake a month-long headlining tour in North America, beginning on May 5 in South Orange, New Jersey. Joseph Solomon will be supporting her, as they travel to venues such as Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Los Angeles’ Wiltern, Atlanta’s Buckhead Theater, and many more before ending the tour with a hometown show at New York’s Terminal 5. You can find tickets for the tour, and more information, here.