NP York is a mystery to us. He/they last appeared in NMC in June 2023 as N.P. York and the Fools with a single, ‘Pain and the ever after’, a song about thinking you can resolve the battle that took place the night before by buying her some cheap flowers from a petrol station at the crack of dawn.
An intriguing piece of philosophy for sure, and one born seemingly of a storytelling tradition inherent in the small town in northern Denmark where he grew up.
NP York later debuted his album ‘Music for Fools’ in 2024, again with the band The Fools. The songs were written in the wake of depression.
Fast forward almost three years and NP York appears now to comprise NP York, Asta Olivia Bekhøi Løgstrup and Mark Michael Kenne Hede, both listed as lyricists and composers on this single, ‘Walk on by’.
The premise of the song is that with all that’s going down right now it’s probably best to do just that. It isn’t the same as pointing your phone at the mugging of an old lady on the High Street by a couple of crack head youths instead of going to help her (as is all too often the case these sorry days).
Rather it’s the expression of ultimate world weariness; a global depression. The acceptance that no matter who you vote for (assuming you bother to do that at all) nothing will change. The adults, whatever colours they wear, long ago left the room and they ain’t coming back anytime soon.
Hence apathy has taken a firm grip. We are all increasingly bored spectators rather than participants.
The promotional photo that he used for this single is indicative of where he’s at – sufficiently aware of what’s going on but with an addled brain unable to process it all so it is shifted to read-only memory status.
The song starts by sounding like someone just pulled the plug out of its socket and afterwards is underscored by a repetitive beat and melody suggestive of the unrelenting nature of the world’s trials and tribulations, punctuated by piano and guitar chords stabbing their way out of it in a frenzy.
The line “You see me walk on by” is every bit as much a statement of the zeitgeist as was Irene Cara’s “I’m gonna live forever/I’m gonna learn how to fly” 45 years ago, rooted in desperation rather than anticipation. The world is fog-bound and nothing’s taking off.
And there’s a wonderful line in it if I heard it correctly – “Who’s to blame?/We got to war to feel loved again” – which might be straight out of the Pete Hegseth book of after-dinner speech quotes.
It’s dystopian in the mould of Lou Reed in particular, and of Bowie in his darker moments.
And yet am I the only one to hear, in the expansive, anthemic outro, a rallying call to arms for the masses, to cast off their shackles and seize the moment?
(Continues after the Spotify link)
‘Walk on by’ is out now on all digital platforms via Iceberg Records.
Find him on:
Website: https://www.npyork.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089941931605
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/npyorkmusic
