We were already big fans of Ken Yates' Total Cinema, his 2025 LP at which he arrived with the sort of creative clarity he'd always been striving for. We spoke with Yates about it in detail after it was released, but he recently came back to those sessions with the debut of a new single, "Perfect Dive," an outtake that he says was impossible fit into the sequence at the time. As good as Total Cinema is, it's hard to imagine how a song as compelling as this was left on the cutting-room floor.

The lyrics to "Perfect Dive" by Ken Yates:

I remember the beaches with the birds eating out of your hand

And your dog was in the back of your Civic Sedan
Looking at yourself in the rearview mirror
And you grew up in a small town until you were nine
And you swore you wouldn’t end up there when you die
Rubbing your eyes so the road gets clearer
Chasing your waking life
You’re never alone
First to arrive and the last to go home
Shape of a perfect dive
You swim through the hall
You break through the ice
Then you’re turning your fall
Into a perfect dive
I remember you knew the whole place like a drink in your hand
And you gave us all a look and a lay of the land
As if no one came here well before you
And the creatures in the richer part of the town
Selling ego like there’s none left going around
And the concrete made sure nothing was living
Chasing your waking life
You’re never alone
First to arrive and the last to go home
Shape of a perfect dive
You swim through the hall
You break through the ice
Then you’re turning your fall
Into a perfect dive
It’s a beautiful night to be unsatisfied
It’s a beautiful night to be unsatisfied
It’s a beautiful night to be
Chasing your waking life
You’re never alone
First to arrive and the last to go home
Shape of a perfect dive
You swim through the hall
You break through the ice
Then you’re turning your fall
Into a perfect dive