“We wrote it super quickly in the tiniest room at Westlake where we did a bunch of [album Melodrama] and it was fun the whole time,” she said in her note. “It’s super off the cuff lyrically, almost ad-libbed, and you can hear me starting to figure out some album themes.” As an example, she cited the couplet: “So I took a happy face, and it’s coming on like a charm/ I don’t wanna get lost, I wanna worship the sun/ and if you want, you can come.”
“Grudge,” co-written by the singer and Malay and produced by the pair and Antonoff, is a “composite portrait of when relationships turn sour, being trapped in the ice but remembering the warmth,” she said. The bubbling bop with a propulsive, spare beat about a special bond and the pain of being replaced features the devastating, pleading refrain, “Where did we go wrong?/ Our haven was always in a song/ But just when I go to close the gates/ Permanently, I realize that it isn’t me.”
Earlier this week, the singer dropped the environmental message video for “Fallen Fruit,” which features a poignant reminder to all of us that it’s our duty to protect the planet for future generations.
Listen to “Hold No Grudge” and “Helen of Troy” below.