Julia Stone Returns With St. Vincent-Produced “Break”

Julia Stone reinvents herself on “Break,” an oddball art-pop anthem produced by St. Vincent. The singer/songwriter (and one half of acclaimed duo Angus & Julia Stone) forgoes her usual stripped-back, folk-adjacent sound in favor of something bolder. “So I left and started dancing under the street light and you saw me, and I saw that you saw me,” the Aussie artist muses in the stream-of-consciousness opening verse. “And you were always one to wander around these places, with eyes for ears and ears for ideas.”

We eventually reach a wonderfully jarring and undeniably catchy chorus. “Darling, darling, I feel like I might break,” Julia sings over clattering percussion. “Darling, darling, you take my breath away.” St. Vincent does a better job of describing it than I ever could when she calls it “‘You Can Call Me Al’ through the looking glass.” What is it actually about? “It’s when you first meet somebody, and you have that connection, and your chemicals go crazy,” the 35-year-old explains. “It’s about enjoying that first moment, without considering what comes next.”

Make sure you watch the extraordinary video, which was directed by Jessie Hill and shot in Mexico. It finds Julie dancing in a dystopian club — talk about prescient (it was filmed last year) — surrounded by mask-wearing partygoers. Check it out below.