City Of Heroes

I've been a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since it began in 2008, so in the run-up to the release of 'Avengers: Endgame' in April 2019, I wrote and recorded this tribute to Marvel (I unashamedly admit I was hoping the hype for the film would generate interest for the song). Since there are dozens of characters in the MCU, I decided to focus on a handful of the New York-based superheroes - namely, Captain America, Spider-man, Doctor Strange, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Daredevil and the Punisher. Musically, the tune was originally inspired by Johnny Cash's cover of 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails (a song which, ironically, experienced a surge in popularity when it was featured in the trailer for 'Logan', another superhero film).

Like I did with my 'How I Met Your Mother'-inspired song 'The Yellow Umbrella', I made a video for 'City Of Heroes' set to clips from MCU films and TV shows. Although I'm proud of the song, since it was recorded at home and not in the studio, I decided not to release it on iTunes or Spotify, only on YouTube and Soundcloud.

The artwork of the single follows the same grid design as the cover of my instrumental album 'Detrimentals', and features comic-book style pictures of locations in New York that relate to each of the superheroes I reference in the song - Harlem (Luke Cage), the Midland Circle building (the Defenders), Clifton Church (Daredevil), the Central Park carousel (The Punisher), Chinatown (Iron Fist), Brooklyn Bridge (Captain America), Queens (Spider-man), and the Sanctum Sanctorum (Doctor Strange).