Dive Index is a collaborative project from composer and producer Will Thomas, through which he explores the various nuances of the human condition and the condition of humanity. Today we’re premiering the latest single from Thomas’s project, a reflective and very-much of-the-times new song called “19 Fools” featuring British musician Merz. It’s one of five collaborative songs with Merz on Dive Index’s fifth studio album Waving at Airplanes, which was released on May 29 through Neutral Music. The remaining six songs on the album are collaborations with Natalie Walker, formerly of the downtempo electronica outfit Daughter Darling.

“19 Fools” opens with a quietly chirping electronic beat and Merz’s softly delivered vocals. The song sticks to a slow tempo, with lines like “When the wolf / howls outside our door / Trying to destroy / Everything we worked hard for,” “A furious ghoul / Rubbing salt in our wounds” and maybe the most obvious reference to our current national leadership, “A builder of walls / A blamer of all.”

The song was written with a look at the political ridiculousness of 2019. Finding ridiculousness in 2019 might be a slightly ironic venture considering the calamity that 2020 has become with the politicization of something as simple as wearing a mask in public and the controversy over the idea that all people should be treated the same regardless of race, but the song is still very much relevant. If anything, the chorus of “A two thousand and nineteen fool,” likely intended to ridicule President Donald Trump, can have another meaning now in 2020. The lyric could also be directed towards the listener; as bad as we think things are at a given point, it can always get worse – if we thought 2019 was as bad as it could get, we certainly were fools.

Waving at Airplanes track list

1. Window to Window (feat. Natalie Walker)
2. Near Enough (feat. Merz)
3. She’s Exploding (feat. Natalie Walker)
4. 19 Fools (feat. Merz)
5. Bruised and Beautiful (feat. Natalie Walker)
6. Pristine Wilderness (feat. Merz)
7. Wish I Had A Pulse (feat. Natalie Walker)
8. Say Yes To Tenderness (feat. Merz)
9. Waving At Airplanes (feat. Natalie Walker)
10. The Ruined Romantics (feat. Merz)
11. We Can’t Change The Channel (feat. Natalie Walker)