NAO first jumped onto our radar way back in 2015 and songs like "Fool To Love" from her 2016 debut For All We Know. In the two years since, we haven't heard much from the singer-songwriter (though we did get a very dope remix album of her For All We Know songs). NAO hasn't just been twiddling her thumbs, though. She's been hard at work on her sophomore album and she's bringing us our first look and listen with the release of her new single and video "Another Lifetime."
"Another Lifetime" deals with the feelings left after a tough breakup. We'll let NAO break it all down for you in her own words, though. "'Another Lifetime' came right at the end of both the writing process and an emotional process I’d been going through dealing with the breakup of a special long term relationship," she said in a press release. "Finishing the song felt like the full stop I needed to put on a difficult period of my life, so the next day I was like ‘that’s it, I’ve finished the album and this is the first song I want people to hear from it.'”
One listen to the track, and you can see why she chose it to be the as-yet-unnamed album's lead single. It encapsulates the style we've come to know her for, a mixture of R&B, electronic and pop music that hits you right in your emotional core. Haunting synths build and ebb as she lays out the mistakes of a relationship past on the verses while interestingly layering her vocal with a digitized version of itself. But it's not all gloom and regret, as the chorus reveals that she has hope that their love might exist in another life. "I guess I'll wait another lifetime," she sings warmly on the chorus. "'Cuz there I will stay / My darling I swear I won't run from you." She also captures the song's emotions in the accompanying video, which features her as the only conscious person walking through the sleepy haze of a city late at night. As she walks and sings, she conveys a sense of loneliness that you can almost feel through the screen. But an unexpected moment near the video's end also telegraphs a little bit of the song's hopefulness as well as she walks into the morning light.
We're still waiting on the deets when it comes to her sophomore album, but for now, NAO's got our full attention with "Another Lifetime." Peep the video below.
