total tommy finds a pen pal in her teenage self on "ADELINE"

Like the emotionally charged ending of a finale episode of RuPaul's Drag Race where the queens are tasked with preparing a speech for their childhood selves, or the nostalgic warmth you get rifling through shoeboxes stuffed with adolescent momentos, total tommy's latest track "ADELINE" takes its softly stirring narrative beats from looking backwards.

"'ADELINE' was written on a trip to Melbourne earlier this year," the Australian artist tells of the track. "I was feeling really nostalgic about being back in my hometown, and wrote 'ADELINE' as a bit of a letter to my teenage self, and the advice I'd give her now. It’s about finding that ignition and getting better at being able to shut off all of the noise your brain makes."

Over fuzzy guitars and a rousing drum line, the shoegaze sound total tommy has crafted is delicately laced together with her all-bearing lyricism. "She’s nothing like you / she doesn’t feel so insecure / never knew how to / pick yourself up off the bathroom floor," she repeats throughout the track, a stream of consciousness probing the tumult of her teenage years.

The tracks sonic palette and candour, however, exemplifies an artist fully chrysalised in her maturity. Further still, writing this song with her wife the very fibres of the track are imbued with a whole new layer of meaning; cast somewhere between a reflection on the past and a look at how far she's come in the present. Peeling back new layers on each of her three singles out so far, total tommy are an artist to get behind early doors.