Stockholm-based singer, songwriter and producer LonelyTwin (Madelene Eliasson) returns today with another slice of richly textured indie pop in new single “Hurts Like It Hit Me.” Released via Ultra Music (Calvin Harris, Deadmau5, Kaskade, Sofi Tukker) the song showcases Eliasson’s rich but airy coo coasting through a soundscape of guitar, programmed drums, and intuitively arranged odds and ends adding a nostalgic tint to the song. Following previous single “If I Know Myself,” about a relationship forever stuck at ‘what if,’ “Hurts Like It Hit Me” acts as a sequel of sorts. “It’s about the same girl, written a while after I had gone home. She couldn’t really make up her mind about wanting to be with me. Even though I knew it was messy, it still hurt like I lost something worth keeping, so I wrote the song about that,” Eliasson explains.

While the name LonelyTwin evokes longing (Madelene herself being a Gemini), the forthcoming full length due later this year arrives fully formed: a genre-blurring combination of inventive trip-hop, smart indie pop, and evocative electronic folk that subtly slides between blue mood and hard-earned joy. Eliasson’s songs are spectral yet heavy with emotion, and her lyrics aim for an honesty that’s elusive in real life — like confessions whispered in the dark to the twin sister you never had. 
 
Though LonelyTwin is new, it builds on Eliasson’s past lives in music: working with others like LÉON, Anna Of The North, and Jasmine Thompson and teaming up with Jonathan Olofsson as Jo&Me, whose cover of Drake’s “Too Good” racked up blogosphere love in 2017. LonelyTwin’s additional releases include her most recent nostalgic breakup bop “My Heart” and a remix of MGMT’s iconic track “Electric Feel,” which further hints not just at her vast array of influences, but the general vibe she’s going for: sensual, end-of-the-night party jams built from rich guitar loops and yearning, feather-light vocals. She doesn’t rule out collaboration for the far more personal LonelyTwin, but every song begins and ends with Eliasson, alone, in the studio. That approach harkens back to her youth in the wooded Swedish suburbs. As the youngest child, she was given space to get lost in her own world. “I like staying in that one moment of creativity for as long as I can,” she says. “There’s usually something magic in that moment.”

Photo Courtesy: Sandra Thorsson