Hear new Beck single, “Defriended”

Beck has unveiled a brand new, stand-alone single called “Defriended”.

Click below to listen to track, which Spin reports will not feature on either of the artist’s forthcoming two albums. They also state that there will be another stand-alone single release ahead of his next studio album and the acoustic LP which is also in the works.

Beck will be heading up a special Song Reader night at London’s Barbican on July 4, in which songs from last year’s sheet music release will be performed. The line-up for the night will include Beck himself, alongside Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, Franz Ferdinand and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Beth Orton, Joan Wasser aka Joan As Police Woman, Villagers frontman Conor J O’Brien, The Staves, Guillemots, Michael Kiwanuka and singer-songwriters James Yorkston and The Pictish Trail will all also perform on the night with more guests to be announced.

A house band comprising of Seb Rochford, Tom Herbert and The Invisible’s Dave Okumu will perform, with music direction courtesy of Ed Harcourt and David Coulter. In the lead up to the event, the Barbican and Faber Social will host an exhibition of the artwork involved with ‘Song Reader’, as well as a presentation of a selection of some the best amateur interpretations of the songs.

Beck recently performed tracks from his Song Reader sheet music project live in public for the very first time at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz. Song Reader was released in December 2012. It includes 20 songs and more than 100 pages of art. Beck’s idea for the release is that the listener becomes the artist, with all 20 songs open to interpretation by different individuals.