“Never Give Up On The City” documents both the deep desire to flee the strange situation lockdown put the world in and how the mundane and the surreal managed to coexist during this time. The track continues the narrative of Jim, James’ alter ego that he developed during lockdown and our narrator for the course of the album.  The song is also a stunning representation of the Sprechstimme vocal style that James uses (for the first time) throughout the album.  He explains: “'African Night Flight' by David Bowie was a vocal style reference. The words came first for many of these songs so rather than concentrating on fitting words to a melody I worried more about the words I was saying.”