“wishcounting” - James King
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
With his new single “wishcounting” (out September 5, 2025), Rugby-born artist James King re-emerges after a quiet spell with something raw, haunting, and deeply personal. It’s not just a comeback track—it feels like a turning point, a distillation of his artistic voice into something sharper, more vulnerable, and unflinchingly his own.
Built around a starkly beautiful piano progression, the song immediately establishes a sense of intimacy—as though you’re sitting in James’s room while he’s composing it. That intimacy deepens when the ethereal sampled vocals (lifted from Sainkho Namtchylak’s “Lilla Evening”) float into the mix, ghostlike and otherworldly. The contrast between the grounded piano and those drifting, spectral layers creates a tension that’s both fragile and cathartic—a sonic metaphor for the tug-of-war between insecurity and self-recognition that James is exploring.
Lyrically, the song traces a quietly devastating arc: looking back at times when he didn’t know how to help himself, when support systems felt distant or inaccessible, and slowly arriving at the realization that, at the end of the day, self-worth has to be claimed from within. It’s not a tidy resolution—it’s messy, jagged, even a little aggressive at points—but that’s what makes it so compelling. This isn’t “polished pop catharsis”; it’s the kind of emotional excavation that leaves dirt under your nails.
Recorded entirely in his home studio setup, “wishcounting” also carries the unvarnished edge of DIY honesty. Nothing about it feels forced or overproduced—its imperfections are part of the design. In fact, the song’s intensity makes it stand out in James’s catalog: compared to his earlier work, which leaned toward softer, more restrained expression, this track comes across like a deep exhale, or even a shout into the void.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
What really lands, though, is the sense of re-emergence. After a long break balancing university life and creative energy, James describes this as his first song of 2025, and you can hear the relief in it: the joy of reconnecting with his supporters, of putting something honest into the world again, of carving out space to remind himself—and us—that he’s still here.
“wishcounting” is the kind of track that sneaks up on you. It begins with quiet beauty, pulls you into its intensity, and leaves you somewhere transformed by the time it ends. More than just a single, it feels like a statement: James King is back, with music that is both fiercely introspective and resonant enough to speak to anyone wrestling with their own insecurities.
It’s not background music—it’s a mirror.
“wishcounting” is available now on all major streaming platforms
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Listen to James King and other similar artists on our Spotify Playlist ‘New Music Spotlight - Electronic’
