Jim James Previews ‘Wowed Out’ Album With New Song ‘Lost Child’

Jim James‘ latest solo single, “Lost Child,” is his reminder that he (like everyone else) is still figuring it all out. “Tell me what I need to know,” he sings. “I don’t care if it costs me tooth and bone.” The music is deceptively serene folk rock with a little slap back reverb that echoes in a way similar to “Walk On By.” But unlike that song, James wants listeners’ attention. “I’m a lost child just begging for forgiveness, cryin’ for my mama,” he sings in the chorus. The song, which actually sampled another song, will appear on Wowed Out, due out Friday.

Nashville-based filmmaker Joshua Shoemaker shot the video, which finds James, mostly in silhouette pleading to for understanding from an orange-colored sky. “A major theme in my life is feeling a little lost in a world I don’t understand,” reflects James said in a statement. “Most days I look at all the violence and hatred, and I can’t believe it’s happening — it’s like I wandered into the wrong dimension. ‘Lost Child’ is another song where I’m asking for help to try to make sense of it all.”

He sampled the song’s “sweetly shuffling beat and piano” from R&B singer Maxine Brown’s “Oh No Not My Baby,” which he notes Carole King co-wrote in 1964. “I heard that song, and it blew my mind, and as I was writing ‘Lost Child’ it somehow reminded me of all those pieces I’d been wanting to finish for so long,” James said.

The album is the My Morning Jacket frontman’s fifth solo album and first in eight years. “Lost Child” was on of the first songs he wrote for the album and is one of the album’s few that didn’t originate from James sifting through archives of music he’d previously written for film scores. So far, he has also released the songs “Come Again” and the title track. He’ll be playing a handful of tour dates, with one in Park City, Utah, on Friday and the rest in the late fall.