Garrett Anthony Rice continues the slow-burn reveal of his forthcoming double album Equinox with the release of his latest single, “The Prisoner,” a tightly wound piece of narrative songwriting that plays with tension, confession, and illusion. Arriving as another carefully placed fragment of the larger project, the track stands confidently on its own while deepening the emotional and conceptual framework of the album.

Built on restraint, “The Prisoner” unfolds with deliberate patience. Its verses move in controlled, measured breaths, creating the feeling of someone speaking under pressure, circling a story rather than confronting it head-on. The atmosphere is claustrophobic and monochrome, with Rice holding back melody and release, letting silence and space do as much storytelling as the words themselves. There is a subtle musical nod to the unease of classic rock suspense, recalling the creeping dread of The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” while remaining firmly grounded in Rice’s own stark, modern sensibility.

When the chorus finally opens, it feels like a confession breaking through restraint, the moment where melody and arrangement briefly expand before snapping back into control. It is a familiar emotional move for fans of great rock storytellers, but Rice executes it with quiet confidence and precision. The tension peaks in the closing lines, where the narrative dissolves with the admission, “I must confess I made this up,” reframing everything that came before it. The line lands with sly disorientation, echoing the tradition of late-song revelations that collapse the boundary between fiction and truth.

Rather than leaning on nostalgia, “The Prisoner” treats influence as something to be absorbed and reshaped. Rice is less interested in revival than in conversation, using the lineage of classic rock storytelling as raw material for something more introspective and psychologically complex. The result is a track that feels both familiar and quietly subversive, grounded in craft, intention, and emotional depth.

As part of Equinox, an 18-song double album that follows Rice’s 2023 debut under the alias (i) CONSULT, “The Prisoner” signals an artist fully committed to ambition and detail. Recorded across Ireland and the UK with producer Chris Potter, whose past collaborations include The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, U2, and Richard Ashcroft, the album has already drawn significant praise from industry figures who have heard early versions. If “The Prisoner” is any indication, Equinox is shaping up to be a project defined not by immediacy or trend, but by patience, narrative complexity, and emotional resonance.

With this release, Rice continues to position himself as a storyteller deeply invested in tension, nuance, and the spaces between certainty and doubt. “The Prisoner” doesn’t offer easy answers or tidy resolutions. Instead, it lingers, unsettles, and invites repeat listens, marking another compelling step toward the arrival of Equinox.