Grant-Lee Phillips is back with “Cruel Trick,” his first new song of 2022.

“Cruel Trick” is a way of expressing the subtle toll of this period, the toll on the mind, the spirit. One of the things that brought stillness to my rattled nerves were the daily drives that my family took. The long drives and the family time kept me tethered to the present during a time that felt as though the whole earth had tilted to one side. That distorted sense, being thrown off kilter – that was the feeling I was trying to capture in “Cruel Trick.”

Grant-Lee Phillips