London artist and producer Shygirl has always been difficult to pin down. After emerging from the city’s experimental club scene with releases like Cruel Practice and Alias, she stretched her sound into something more sensual and melodic on her 2022 debut album Nymph, before diving back into the dancefloor with Club Shy and Club Shy Room 2. Now she is getting ready for another transformation with her sophomore album, Swallow!, out November 6.
Shygirl describes Swallow! as a reintroduction, one shaped by falling in love and entering a new chapter of her life after Nymph. Written across loose, unhurried sessions with Karma Kid and Casey MQ, the record brings indie songwriting into the electronic world she has built over the years, without abandoning the latter completely. She first opened the door to this new era with “Alyse”, a surprisingly cinematic track that already suggested something softer, grander and more romantic was taking shape.
With “Lucky (hymn)”, the contours of Swallow! come into sharper focus. Choral voices and piercing flashes of violin give the track a sweeping, almost devotional quality, while Shygirl zooms in on the tiny details that suddenly become enormous when you start falling for someone, from the crease around their eyes to the corner of a smile or the sound of a sigh. Alongside “Alyse”, the single seems to confirm a real change in palette, with Shygirl drawing from 90s indie and leaning into a more cinematic and orchestral kind of songwriting.
“Lucky (hymn)” also arrives with a video co directed by Shygirl and Austen Taylor Pease, filmed in one continuous take. It expands the visual universe introduced with “Alyse”, moving between Shygirl as Alyse and a new character called Kay, both tied up and beaten inside an otherwise ordinary kitchen. Watch below.
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