Blue Vervain returns on June 27 with “Paranoia,” an outtake from the sessions that birthed 2023's The Garden, now lovingly reworked and reimagined into something too gripping to stay buried. What began as a b-side has been revived with fresh mixing by Tom McCormick, polishing the track into a brooding, slow-burning standout that feels less like a castoff and more like a crucial postscript.

Recorded at Big and Tall Recording in Wood Ridge with producers Jon Khan, Gabe Valle, and Tom McCormick, “Paranoia” builds on The Garden's themes of emotional growth and personal reflection, but narrows its lens inward. If The Garden was about walking through life’s seasons with open arms, “Paranoia” captures the moment you stop in your tracks, look over your shoulder, and realize something’s quietly unraveling.

Clean, lush guitars open the track like a lullaby with sharp edges. The vocals are smooth, yearning, and delicately layered. The harmonies ride emotive, descending melodies that shimmer with tension. At first, the song floats with a dreamy calm, but beneath that surface is a quiet ache, gathering force like a brewing storm.

Thumping tom drums pulse underneath, relentless in their presence, driving the track forward as shimmering guitars twirl and evolve across the nearly 5-minute track. There’s no dramatic explosion: just a slow, surgical build, like an emotional dam straining under pressure. And then, in its final seconds, the song bursts open—not in chaos, but in a pounding, triumphant finish that hits harder because of its restraint.

“Paranoia” may have been left behind once, but now it feels like a necessary coda—an intimate glimpse into the uneasy spaces The Garden only hinted at. It’s the ghost of an emotion that never fully faded, now made impossible to ignore.