LA’s 23-year-old singer Niki just recently announced her forthcoming album Nicole to follow her 2020 debut Moonchild. The album will arrive this August as she stated on Instagram. “This project is without a doubt my most favorite thing I have ever made as an artist. It’s where younger me and current me meet and hang and have a fucking blast together,” she wrote.
Today she dropped the sprawling lead single “Before” with a cinematic music video. It immediately kicks off with vivid storytelling: “You hid me in your dorm room / It was Halloweekend, I just flew / across the globe, 22 hours just to see you,” she lulls over dreamy synths. It sounds reminiscent of artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, or Angel Olsen. “’Before’ is the irresolute ending to my very first love story. I wrote it as a means to create the kind of closure I never had,” she said in a statement. “I also feel it’s ironically poetic to open this new chapter by telling you how it ends first. I’m so proud of it, and I can’t think of a better song to introduce the ultimate break-up record I’ve always fantasized of putting out but somehow haven’t…until now.”
Watch the video for “Before” above. Check out her Instagram post below.