As if Neal Francis wasn’t already unique enough, the vintage piano man just released a new single about Greek mythology, “Prometheus”. The song is set to appear on Francis’ sophomore album, In Plain Sight, out on November 5th via ATO Records.
“Prometheus”, co-written by Chris Gelbuda, arrived on Tuesday with a visualizer that leans on psychedelia just as much as the song itself. Francis’ twinkling keyboards open the track akin to The Rolling Stones‘ “She’s Like A Rainbow” before pounding drums and effects-washed guitar introduces the track proper. The frontman’s brooding vocals find parallels between his own rise, fall, and redemption and that of the Greek god of fire.
The refrain of “I can feel the fire getting hot/Cause I sold the only soul I’ve got/For how long will I have to stay chained to this rock?/Have mercy on me,” carries a thematic similarity to the introspective songwriting found throughout In Plain Sight. The album came together during a personal crisis for Francis, who found himself living in a church after returning home from touring in 2019 to a breakup. In addition to his own struggles with substance abuse, the musician came out stronger on the other side and logged In Plain Sight as the journal of his internal travails.
Related: Neal Francis Revisits A Nightmare In “Alameda Apartments” [Video]
“I’m owning up to all my problems within my relationships and my sobriety,” Francis said in a press release. “So much of it is about coming to the understanding that I continue to suffer because of those problems. It’s about acknowledging that and putting it out in the open in order to mitigate the suffering and try to work on it, instead of trying to hide everything.”
Watch the new music video for Neal Francis’ latest single, “Prometheus”. In Plain Sight is available here for pre-order.
Neal Francis — “Prometheus” (Official Visualizer)
[Video: Neal Francis]