Jagwar Twin reimagines “Loser” with soulful acoustic makeover—watch
Jagwar Twin has had quite a busy past year. The soulful alt artist unleashed his first single “Loser” in September 2018 on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 just ahead of his full-length debut, Subject To Flooding.
Since its release, the driving force behind the project, Roy English, has toured with lovelytheband and now currently Avril Lavigne. English is teaming up with AltPress to share a new side of the hit song with an acoustic rework.
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English recruited a team of instrumentalists and fellow vocalists to embrace his R&B-tinged flow on “Loser.” Stripping it down, the musician gives new life to a track he has said is all about showing your true self.
“We all walk around with masks on, disguised as what we think the world wants to see,” English says of the track. “But if everyone was to remove their masks, they would come to find that we are all just human underneath, that we are all losers.”
English expands on that feeling, explaining that it’s all about taking back your individuality and how he portrayed that through this musical arrangement.
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“We’ve all felt like ‘losers’ at different times in our lives, but this song is really about that word being weaponized against our individuality and how we can take it back if we find spirit in our shared humanity,” he continues. “Different arrangements help tell different sides of a song, and I wanted to create a live arrangement of ‘Loser’ that touched on the deep emotional side of what it can feel like to perceive yourself as a loser.
“The arrangement starts off feeling lonely with the droning guitar but builds to the freedom that you can feel when you let go of preconceived ideas of what the word means. There’s also an energy captured in a live performance that’s so special when you have a group of amazingly talented people in a room together creating from a shared feeling.”
As mentioned, the track joins fellow single “Long Time Coming” on Subject To Flooding. The album had the vocalist backed by an all-star team in the studio, including blink-182 drummer Travis Barker’s contribution.
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S1, who has worked with Eminem, Lil Xan, Lil Uzi Vert, Lorde, Kanye West and many more, took on production. Linus, who boasts credits with blink-182 and All Time Low, also joined in on production alongside mixer Adam Hawkins (twenty one pilots, 5 Seconds Of Summer).
The album is available via Atlantic Records here. Check out the new performance video along with the full tracklisting below.
Tracklisting:
1. “Long Time Coming”
2. “Dream / Dream”
3. “Loser”
4. “Good Day”
5. “Superhuman” (Interlude)
6. “Superhuman”
7. “Move To You”
8. “No Fake Friends”
9. “Roy Voice Memo: S1 Arrowhead”
10. “Hell Of A Night”
11. “Hell Of A Night Pt. 2 (The Hallelujah Stickup)”
Jagwar Twin is currently on the road supporting Lavigne on the pop singer’s first run in five years, the Head Above Water tour. Last week, the vocalist even shared his own take on Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” while on the road. Tickets are available here with a list of remaining dates below.
Dates:
10/01 – New York, NY @ Pier 17 at South Street Seaport
10/03 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
10/05 – Wallingford, CT @ Oakdale Theatre
10/06 – Toronto, ON @ Sony Centre for Performing Arts
10/08 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre
10/09 – Washington, D.C. @ MGM National Harbor
10/11 – Philadelphia, PA @ XCite Center at Parx Casino
