Gracey shares new single ‘Rhetorical Questions
Photo Credit: Tony Tacheny
GRACEY. She’s the BRIT-nominated star-in-ascent. The architect of irresistible pop hooks that get under your skin and scale the charts to the UK Top 10, amassing more than 140 million streams. Expansive, rough, euphoric and lacerating – these are the forces at play in her vibrant and altogether singular sound. Today, GRACEY presents the latest track of her musical reinvention, ‘Rhetorical Questions’.
Rising through the ranks at BRIT School where she devoted herself completely to developing her craft, GRACEY’s SoundCloud demos caught the ear of legendary hitmaker Brian Higgins, who invited her to join his famous songwriting collective Xenomania (Girls Aloud, Pet Shop Boys, Sugababes) when she was only 16 years old. Within two years, GRACEY had written her first Platinum hit: ‘By Your Side’ by Jonas Blue featuring Raye. But it was when she was at the helm of her own vision with EPs Imposter Syndrome, The Art of Closure and Fragile that there was a real landslide of intrigue. Her music has been championed by BBC Radio 1’s A-List, The Guardian, The Face, i-D, DIY, Notion, NME, Clash and The Line of Best Fit, among many more.
‘Rhetorical Questions’ is a nocturnal club cut, opening with strutting, Balearic percussion and the haunting trail of a single reverb-drenched guitar. The production then slips into bone-rattling, synthesised bass and infectious four-to-the-floor beats – but, as always, there is something bitter to taste with the sweetness.
GRACEY explains: “The question ‘Who do you love?’ felt both romantic to me but also hints to a level of uncertainty and fear which I experienced when opening myself back up again. I got involved in the song’s production and wanted to continue that feeling on the track side too, which I think mostly comes with that heavy bass, giving the feeling of being hit with love and realising you’re in deep.”
It’s the natural successor and complement to the track which marked her long-awaited return, ‘Delirium’. Teaming up with friends and collaborators including PC Music alumni EasyFun and pop visionaries AFTERHRS, the song was praised by DIY as “[blending] ‘80s-esque synthesisers with the visionary hyperpop of Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek.” Punctuating the verses, though, is an uneasy and wonky metallic slap of bass like a warning that love-struck wonder still carries the danger of vulnerability.
It’s a quality that pop anarchist BIMINI accentuated for the ‘Delirium’ remix, which the pair took to direct to the dancefloor for their surprise appearance at The Line of Best Fit’s iconic club night Pop Never Dies at The Lexington.
Stay tuned for GRACEY’s next move.
