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Music

Cecily is sleepless in love in her second single, Awake

New Zealand artist Cecily has just released her second single, Awake, a darkened pop tune that explores the all-consuming nature of new love.

The single follows on from her debut track, Thinking About Me, released in May this year. A self-described “self-care anthem,” the debut put Cecily on the map, establishing her distinctly personal lyrical style.

cecily awake

New Zealand artist Cecily returns with her second single, Awake, an unlikely take on the obsessive nature of new romance.

This time around, Awake details a different scenario from its inward-looking predecessor; a new romance that has you spending every waking hour with the object of your affection.

“We’ve only got so much time, I don’t know when our goodbye is gonna be the last goodbye,” Cecily sings, “Don’t go, don’t leave, you’ll miss me, stay awake for me.”

In Awake you can hear Cecily developing as an artist, the production taking on a slightly darker feel with pulsing basslines and fuzzy leads. There’s a sweetness to the sonic landscape of her previous single that seems to have waned, and yet there’s still a similar twisted-ness resting beneath the surface, emerging as a hallmark of Cecily’s writing.

In Thinking About Me, she opens up about an inner turmoil she is experiencing: “Getting thinner, feeling fatter, laughing more, feeling sadder.” Now in Awake, the dark circles beneath her eyes make her look “demonic” from all the time she’s been spending with her new lover.

The honest and self-deprecatory nature of her words speak to a new era of Gen Z artists and their audiences who, aware of their own fragility, are willing to hold it up for examination, ultimately taking comfort in the solidarity of this act.