Last month, 23-year-old singer Niki announced her new album Nicole and released the lead single “Before.” She’s back today with another new track from the LP; it’s called “Oceans & Engines,” written when she was only 17. She also revealed that the release date for the album is August 12.
“Oceans & Engines” shows off her skill for storytelling, in a Phoebe Bridgers or Angel Olsen kind of way, especially when it comes to narratives about pain and loss: “How is it now that somehow you’re a stranger? / You were mine just yesterday / I pray the block in my airway dissipates / And instead deters your airplane’s way,” she sings. About the song, she said:
“I wrote this song in 2016 when I was 17 experiencing the earth-shattering heartbreak of a first love moving away for good. It is massively dramatic & long with a naïveté & innocence I look back on fondly now at 23. Like she had no idea about what was going to happen. Like the fact that after writing it in bed at ungodly hours of an 11th grade weeknight snacking on stale cereal she would eventually revisit the song and release it years later. Life can be quite cyclical at times and that has become painfully obvious throughout the process of re-working these songs that are some years old now. Can’t wait for you all to hear each one nestled in the plush & pillowy company of sister songs when the album drops in August but in the mean time, here’s a second snippet of my favorite thing I’ve made so far.”
Watch the music video for “Oceans & Engines” above.
Nicole is out 8/12. Pre-order it here.