Romy has become the second member of the xx to go solo, unleashing Lifetime.
It's her first solo single following on from the announcement that she was going to release a solo album. Lifetime was written in lockdown with British producer Fred again... and also features production credits by Jamie xx.
For those who spotted Romy's name on the writing credits of Silk City and Dua Lipa's Electricity, the pulsating tempo of this one won't come as a surprise. For those who go to the xx for melancholy, it will.
Lifetime is the most colourful thing she's ever released. An optimistic, kaleidoscopic dance tune that leans into the xx's clubbiest moments and tie dye's it.
It's a wonderfully positive moment, coming in a particularly dark year, and it's likely to be filed next to similarly escapist statements like Lipa's Future Nostalgia.
It bleeds warmth and best of all it places Romy front-and-centre. The xx have always happily melded as one but here she's unapologetically bold. I See You introduced as to a new, confident Romy but here she's completely liberated.
Romy told Annie Mac on Radio 1, she was inspired by the dance classic - "Those songs you put on that unite a room." However big or small that room is right now, Lifetime feels like it has that power.
It's especially unfair that we can't go out and dance to this one but the nostalgia feels good. That seems to be her intention.
Best Moment: Hearing that pulsating beat come in within seconds is electrifying.
Worst Moment: It doesn't feel in the spirit of this song to answer this, to be honest.
Best Lyric: "If this world comes to an end / I wanna be there with you," hits different right now.
