UK artist Laura Mvula is back with her first new single in five years, and first for Atlantic. “Safe Passage” takes inspiration from synth-heavy ’80s pop, and Laura says the song “is a poem about the vehicle that takes us all from the space where we feel like we’re drowning, and we’re trapped to the promised land, which actually exists. It’s not a dream, it’s not a fictional place. We can go there. We can go there like right now. We just have to tap into ourselves to our love relationships. ‘Safe Passage’ evokes that feeling in me. It reminds me of a time when feeling positive emotions was much simpler, much less complicated.”

“Writing the song was a struggle because I had to really dig for it,” she continues. “But as it revealed itself to me, it struck me down like lightning on the Damascus Road, and I was grateful for it. I was so scared of letting myself down. And I was so exhausted of caring only about pleasing people and things around me. And I wanted and needed release from that. That’s what ‘Safe Passage’ is.”

Watch the video, which was taken from Laura’s recent livestream performance, “Under A Pink Moon,” her first concert in three years, below

Laura also recently reimagined her previous singles in an ’80s pop style for 1/f, a new EP, which you can stream below, as well.