Listen: Paul Thomas Saunders – “Mutually Assured Destruction” [Premiere]

The opening synth line of “Mutually Assured Destruction” by Leeds-raised artist Paul Thomas Saunders is a sort-of synesthesiac capture of how it feels to wake up late for work on a freezing winter morning and not care.

As the drums and alarmingly pleasant vocals fade in, the day begins. Capturing such a vague but universally recognised emotion is difficult, but the task proves to be little more than an introductory exercise for Paul Thomas Saunders.

His repeated belts of “Do you feel it?” don’t necessarily seem to urgently demand an answer from the interrogated, yet the listener is inclined to just simply reply “Yeah!”

We feel it, Paul. We feel young.

“Mutually Assured Destruction” is taken from his Good Women EP, out on 26 January via Atlantic Records.