The fucking brilliant Empress Of emerged with ‘Water Water’, a club track that kinda shouldn’t have been a club track. It was a stunning introduction (I’m ignoring her EP, as this anecdote is a personal one and I never listened to her early early stuff, don’t @ me please) to a stunning LP. Me was as complex as it was straight up banger after banger. It was introspective and emotional dance music at it’s finest. We’ve since been teased with a few stand alone singles and features (you just can’t go past her part of Blood Orange’s ‘Best of You’) – but finally we’ve got a release! Well, it’s a two-track, but that counts, I swear!! Written and performed in both English and Spanish, ‘Trust Me Baby’ and ‘In Dreams’ offer some of the most poignant and strong writing from Lorely Rodriguez. Although the production is stripped back, leaving behind some of the punching club elements of her previous work, the subtle and warm synth vibe give Lorely space to give her stories the full spotlight. It creates a captivating release, where the emphasis is on both Empress Of’s songwriting ability and vocal delivery. There’s no hiding here, it’s time to prepare for more raw Empress Of in the not too distant future.
Trust Me Baby / In Dreams is out now via Terrible Records. Find it on your local streaming platform.