LA-based Morgan Kibby reprises her White Sea project with hauntingly expansive lull of "Fake Cry"

Having just played on the title-track to Harry Styles' new opus and worked production on Gaga’s Chromatica instrumentals, you’d think Morgan Kibby might want to spend her covid lockdown on an island not dissimilar to the "Watermelon Sugar" clip.

Instead Kibby has returned to her White Sea project, her last offering being 2017’s Tropical Odds LP. On new track "Fake Cry" she cradles her lyrics through thick and impacting layers of instrumentation with dynamics that grip and crush.

This single feels like it's setting a tone. Gone are the high-pop hooks heard on songs like "Stay Young, Get Stoned", instead Kibby toys with destructive composition. "And I’ll let you eat. The pleasure, the pleasure starts with me watching you," she breathes in low, intimate tones as it all creeps in. "You wake up alone," she drops, as the track flares and unfurls with sharp bursts of brassy synth.

It’s ethereal, dark and brooding. Unsettling, but at the same time so inviting. Let’s hope this fake cry isn’t a false start. We need more White Sea to sink into.