Avril 14th

Avril 14th is a 2:05 piano piece on Drukqs. It was recorded on a Disklavier, an acoustic piano that plays from MIDI data, and the clicking of the mechanism can be heard on the recording. Fact's Scott Wilson wrote that the result sounds human but not quite. Several critics compared it to Erik Satie, and the Guardian's Geeta Dayal, who ranked it 19th among his songs in 2019, called it a plaintive piano ballad.

It became one of his most widely used pieces. It appears in Marie Antoinette (2006), Four Lions (2010) and the international trailer for Her (2013). For Four Lions James re-recorded it with a minor edit. Kanye West's 'Blame Game' (2010) used a re-recorded version of the closing section rather than a sample, and James is credited. James alleged that after he offered to re-record an early version at a different tempo, West's team told him it belonged to them. Warp's Phil Canning told Fact that by the time of Drukqs there was less A&R-ing of James, and that all the label knew was to expect the unexpected.

Pitchfork's 2001 review of the album said the piano experiments came dangerously close to the Windham Hill new age aesthetic of the 1980s. On 4 December 2018 James released two alternative versions on his webstore, titled 'reversed music not audio' and 'half speed alternative version'.