Since 2013, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Alle Norton has been making candy-colored pop as Cellars in the iridescent vein of Madonna and Neon Indian. Her re-imagination of the era’s big hair and neon hues infuses her latest single, “Nighttime Girl,” off her upcoming sophomore album, Phases (out April 15 via Manifesto Records).
A glamorously dark — and more confident — rework of a track from her first record, 2013’s Besides, “Nighttime Girl” highlights Norton’s crystalline vocals gliding over glossy, ascending synths redolent of Ariel Pink, who helped produced Phases. Of the track, Norton tells SPIN:
“Nighttime Girl” was written during an interesting transition in my life, I had just moved to Los Angeles and knew barely anyone, and was dealing with the first of a few breakups in a long-term relationship with someone I loved very much. I came up with the music and then told myself when writing the lyrics that I was not going to write another love song, which is where the line “I don’t need love where I’m going” comes from. I was determined to find my own way in this new place, and the song is about the struggle of figuring out who you are; the dissonant human feeling of both self-confidence and self-consciousness at the same time, and both sure and unsure of what one wants in life.
Stream “Nighttime Girl” here.