Willow Gets Introspective on Jazzy Single ‘Symptom of Life’

The singer directed the nature-themed video for the song she called a “juxtaposition of light and dark.”

WILLOW performs at the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival – Day 2 Billboard Exclusive Portrait Studio at Dodger Stadium on November 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California

Christopher Polk for Billboard

After channeling her inner rage and nu-metal bona fides on the 2022 album , Willow is going in the opposite direction on her just-released meditative new single, “Symptom of Life.”

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In an Instagram post announcing the song’s release on Tuesday (March 12), the 23-year-old daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith described the video for the song as something “for all the beautiful people who have ever gone into nature with their friends & been guided to a deeper understanding of life together by plant medicine 🌱🌞 I hope this song and visual can bring catharsis to anyone who experiences them.”

The nature-forward visual — which Smith directed — begins with Smith and two friends strolling in a forest, where the singer finds, and discards, a snail shell before laying on her back in the leaves to begin her Tori Amos-like musings about the mysteries of the universe. “Pushing and peeling myself out of my disguise/ Looking at you now I am wondering who am I/ If I could try to take you back/ I couldn’t define feeling/ Absence of time/ Knowing all is decided there’s nothing here left to find/ The story’s all in my mind/ Pushing and peeling the layers that cover my mind/ Looking into the shadow now I notice the light/ Magic is real when you see it inside,” Willow sings over a loungey backing track that trades the guitar-heavy sound of her previous effort for piano and jazzy drums.

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By video’s end, Willow is smiling while laying on a patch of grass surrounded by a forest of colorful flowers. Earlier in the week she posted the lyrics, explaining to fans that she wanted to give them time to “deeply digest the words before diving into the whole composition.” At press time Willow had not revealed if “Symptom” is a one-off like her equally introspective, jazz-influenced November single “Alone,” or if the songs are destined for what would be her sixth full-length solo studio album.

Watch the “Symptom of Life” video below.

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