Alt-J recently returned to the live stage for a special set – during the gig, they gave their new single ‘Get Better’ its live debut. Check it out below.

Recorded at the Fender Artist Showroom in London, the performance was the first time Alt-J had performed in the capital since their 2018 gig at the Royal Albert Hall.

During the set, Alt-J’s Gus Unger-Hamilton and Joe Newman performed ‘Get Better’ live for the first time.

Check out footage below:

The band released the track last month alongside news of a 2022 tour of the UK and Ireland.

In a press release, Newman said of the track: “‘Get Better’ is the union of two songs. The first was an improvised song I sang in 2018 to my partner who was suffering from period pain. To her I sang ‘Get better my Darcy, I know you can’. She filmed it and I kept revisiting the fragment with a plan to write more.

“The second was a chord structure I worked on in lockdown that focused on someone living through a bereavement. I felt a nervous heat when writing ‘Get Better’. The context of the coronavirus pandemic lent my words a chilling weight and gave me a new sense of responsibility as a lyricist. Whilst the direct events described are fictional, I believe – or I hope – that it’s emotionally the most honest song I’ve written.”

Unger-Hamilton added: “When Joe first played it to me I didn’t just get a bit tearful, I broke down. A big, big cry. A cry of the year.”

‘Get Better’ is taken from Alt-J’s upcoming fourth album ‘The Dream’, which is due out February 11, 2022 and is available to pre-order now.

They’ve also released ‘U&ME’ from the record, which is about “having a good time, togetherness, and the feeling in life that nothing could be any better than it is right now”.

In support of the album, Alt-J will play:

MAY 2022
7 – Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom
9 – Leeds, O2 Academy
13 – Manchester, O2 Apollo
18 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
19 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
22 – Dublin, Olympia Theatre
23 – Dublin, Olympia Theatre
25 – Belfast, The Telegraph Building
27 – Birmingham, O2 Academy