Exclusive Track Premiere: ‘Red Lips,’ Cassandra Jenkins

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSH GOLEMAN.

Cassandra Jenkins’ newest song, “Red Lips,” is a striking combination of past and present emotions: falling head over heels in love and the complexities this carries in the modern digital realm. The Brooklyn based singer-songwriter calls her new track, which premieres exclusively below, “a love song to the screen.” Tender and trance-like, it’s a wistful ode to a green-eyed, unattainable subject—someone that exists online, and made their way into Jenkins’ own dreams.

“We’ve all dreamt about our idols, our crushes, our subconscious obsessions,” says Jenkins. “But this reached an alarming new level for me when I was waking up at night and every morning from dreams about strangers whom I had seen on one of my various screens, but never met.” The song’s lyrics (“Red lips on my mind / Red lips burning bright / I see you every time I close my eyes”) describe the image on Jenkins’ screen, and when combined with her breathy vocals, recreate that very feeling of desire from a distance. Jenkins’ melodic voice glides over bare instrumentation, which consists of a keyboard, baritone guitar, and string quartet. The song’s simple soundscape is a stark contrast to its deeper message, which for Jenkins, at its core, is about the inescapability of technology and how it distracts us from the present.

That being said, Jenkins has been learning to program beats, and wants to incorporate them into her future music, so she isn’t anti-technology. We’re pleased to announce that come April 7, she will release her debut LP, Play Till You Win, which will hopefully speak to this recent musical experimentation. “We’re at a point of no return with developments in technology—and best to embrace it because there’s beauty in everything, even the darkest of times, if we’re willing to find it,” explains Jenkins. “If you’re a romantic like me, that is.”

PLAY TILL YOU WIN IS OUT APRIL 7, 2017. FOR MORE ON CASSANDRA JENKINS, VISIT HER WEBSITE.