Stripped of the band's usual art-rock synths and clenched-throat vocals, alt-J's second single from their newest album, Get Better, is a reflection on the experience of losing a loved one during quarantine. As he sings about keeping a loved one's uneaten jar of Nutella and noting the missing sound of them flushing the toilet in the middle of the night, we hear frontman Joe Newman's coping ("I still pretend you're only out of sight in another room / Smiling at your phone"), reckoning and, by the end of the song, his acceptance. Whether you relate directly or in the abstract, it's a progression we can all relate to.
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