‘Saviour’ is the third single to be dropped in the run up to Jacob Collier’s debut album, In My Room. So far, all the tracks released have felt pretty wholesome. They’ve been clean, bright and pretty positive. ‘Saviour’ is the first of the singles to have somewhat of an edge to it. From the moment the song opened, the first thing I noticed was the heavy presence of glitchy, electronic sounds in the production which gave the percussion-filled intro an earthy, muddy feel. This feel made a significant contribution to the effect of the groove created by Collier’s bass and keyboard playing. The bass line, and the groove to which it contributes, is a key focus of the song and sounds almost Michael League (Snarky Puppy) esque, both stylistically and harmonically. Collier, whilst showing his influences pretty plainly here, still manages to make this song feel entirely his own. He does this with his signature vocal harmonies and through the use of very well placed video game samples.

Lyrically, this is Collier’s least sentimental song yet. ‘Flinstones’ was a very obvious nostalgia trip, whilst ‘Hideaway’ was about the comfort of having a private place of your own to escape to. ‘Saviour’ exudes attitude and resentment, with Collier stating his independence and pushing away the help of others. This attitude is effectively captured by the music itself, with this song being the catchiest of the singles released thus far because of its funk influences, intense groove, memorable bass line and strong vocal melodies.

This is definitely another strong entry from Collier which demonstrates his wide range of influences and compositional ability. Much like the visual style Collier uses in his videos and live shows, this forthcoming album looks like it’s going to be gloriously multi-faceted.

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