Alessia Cara is back with a brand-new single and video for “Dead Man,” out now via Def Jam Recordings. It notably marks her first release since 2022 and kicks off what is set to be an exciting new chapter.
Written by Alessia Cara and produced/written by Mike Elizondo, the charged track tells the story of a once loving relationship gone sour. The song is built around a grooving bassline and a funk-inspired drum groove that boasts cracking snare drums and shuffling hi hats. The move from chorus to verse is introduced by a swaggering, sultry horn line.
Cara sings: “We’re going down, we’re gonna drown.” Later, she adds: “If you really care, then why am I feeling you slip right through my hands? If you’re really there, why can I walk right through you? Talking to a dead man.”
Speaking on the song, Alessia says, “The song is about a relationship that has come to an end and is like the last final grasp of trying to hold onto what is left of this relationship. Basically, looking at the other person and metaphorically shaking them and saying ‘I am really trying my best to hold here, but if you don’t want to be held onto then there’s nothing left of this’. I feel like I am talking to a dead man.”
The video, directed by George Gallardo Kattah, unfolds as a surreal David Lynch-style surrealistic dream. The clip is arranged as a series of vignettes, adding to the song’s mysterious intrigue. Check it out below.
Alessia’s most recent album, In The Meantime was released in September of 2021, and was preceded over the summer of that year by “Sweet Dream” and “Shapeshifter”–whose video also showed off Alessia’s acting chops in the roles of the scorned wife, the cheating husband, a private investigator, the gardener, and maid.