NESSA BARRETT RELEASES HER DARKLY ENTHRALLING THIRD ALBUM TOUGH LOVE
the darkly enthralling and undeniably ascendent Nessa Barrett releases her third album, Tough Love. Out now on Warner Records, the highly anticipated collection swirls guitar-driven cool into the brooding trip-hop textures and cinematic noir atmosphere of her recent work, while Nessa explores various shades of shadowy romance that balance on a knife’s edge of destiny or doom.
The album, which reunites Nessa with her go-to collaborators CJ Baran and Arthur Besna, arrives alongside a music video for the previously unheard titular single, “Tough Love.” The song opens the tracklist with a devastatingly scene-setting line: “Not all dogs are bred to fight, baby you’re all bark and I’m all bite / Pretty face like this you’d never know, I got a jet black river in my soul.” Nessa sways and swaggers over the dusky, blues-inflected groove heading into the deliciously withering hook: “Tough guy, tough guy / But you’re not tough for a woman like me.”
Directed by Claire Bishara (Mariah The Scientist, Julia Michaels), the “Tough Love” video is a short film unto itself. Nessa drives a black muscle car to a seemingly abandoned house where it is revealed that she’s kidnapped a man. She crawls across a fancy dining table while he’s tied to a chair, dances over him wielding a pistol, and lounges on a Victorian settee as he swings from the ceiling by his ankles. Eventually, she decides to burn the whole place down.
Nessa shared a statement about Tough Love ahead of the release:
“Tough Love is a sonic dark-romantic experience. Each song represents a different form of ‘tough love.’ Growing up in L.A. at the age of 17 and now being 24, I’ve experienced a lot and learned so much about myself and love. These songs tell the truth of what I desire and crave deeply — a love that is exciting, passionate, and impossible to find in Hollywood. Words are spells. Songs are spells. I love writing about love because, though it’s fleeting, in the moments while I’m creating the record, it’s true. I live in it, feel it on my skin, close my eyes, taste it, and make it real. Whether it’s something I want, something I had, or something I’m missing, it is mine all the same. Tough Love is about the darkest and toughest parts of love — songs for those who are themselves tough to love, and songs for love that is tough to find.”
Nessa’s wide array of influences shines across the album as her palette draws on everything from Massive Attack and Portishead to Alice in Chains and Fleetwood Mac, though she comes away with a sound that’s entirely her own. She adopts the perspectives of fantasized characters on certain songs — like “Bunny,” writing from the perspective of an exotic dancer, or “Candy,” where she steps into the shoes of a call girl in search of real connection. Over wasteland guitars that evoke PJ Harvey, she concludes, “Silly little me, thinking love was more than sex work.”
Of course, fans were already treated to a pair of Tough Love singles. August brought “Bad Girls Never Die,” a shimmering, strings-backed rallying cry for anyone who isn’t afraid to live free and get dirty. Before that came “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die,” an outlaw lovers’ anthem that earned praise from EUPHORIA (“urgent”) and Kerrang! (“darkly romantic”).
Tough Love follows Nessa’s acclaimed spring EP, Jesus loves a primadonna, which grew out of experimental sessions with Baran and Arthur as they searched for the sound of her next LP. A hypnotic mix of moody rock, trip-hop soundscapes, and haunting vocals, that 8-song project launched a trio of enthralling singles: “High On Heaven,” which likens love to a powerful drug; the jarringly vulnerable “Stay With Me”; and the eerie filmic fantasy “Buffalo 66,” which arrived alongside a dramatic music video starring The Neighbourhood frontman Jesse Rutherford.
The new album arrives shortly after Nessa wrapped the EU/UK leg of The Neighbourhood’s The Wourld Tour — where she played several Tough Love songs — and ahead of the U.S. arena run, which picks up on November 10 at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena and wraps up on December 4 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA. Find all dates below and tickets HERE.
After being named to Billboard’s “21 Under 21” list twice, collaborating with the likes of Whethan, and duetting her own song “american jesus” with Lana Del Rey on stage, Nessa Barrett has amassed nearly 3 billion global streams and over 27 million followers across social platforms. With Tough Love, she displays the irrepressible confidence of a star in her prime, diving headlong into danger and coming out with her most bewitching music to date.
Nessa Barrett, Tough Love
1. “Tough Love”
2. “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die”
3. “Dracula”
4. “Fetish”
5. “Only For You”
6. “Glamorous”
7. “Coming Home Again”
8. “Bunny”
9. “Candy”
10. “God Gave Me Expensive Taste”
11. “Bad Girls Never Die”
Nessa Barrett supporting The Neighbourhood
Nov 10 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
Nov 11 – Orlando, FL @ Kia Center
Nov 12 – Miami, FL @ Kaysea Center
Nov 14 – Nashville, TN @ The Truth
Nov 16 – Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
Nov 18 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
Nov 19 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
Nov 21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
Nov 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ Mortgage Matchup Arena
Dec 02 – San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Dec 04 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum