With the release of her albums KIDS and KIDS (Against the Machine), 2021 was a breakout year for Noga Erez. She's returned today with a new single called "NAILS" and news of her signing to Neon Gold/Atlantic Records. "I’m super excited to begin to work with the people of Atlantic/Neon Gold," Erez said. "This partnership is a big step for me. We’ve already started to get the ball rolling creatively and we have some big plans ahead of us."
For her first new single with the labels, Erez has reunited with her creative partner Ori Rousso. The fiery song opens with a burst of brass and then is boiled down to nail taps and a jolting melody. "I'll bump a bitch / Flesh pieces in my nails," she repeats. She revealed the song is "about jealousy, and how being jealous of people, in this particular case another woman, makes you idealize that person in a very weird and dark way."
The accompanying video shows Erez on a bus with comrades riding to take down a giant women with long black nails. "What we are actually walking towards is a woman who looks like a model,” Erez explains. "She has that typical/classic body image. The unrealistic societal standards of beauty—skinny, tall, sexy, flawless. She's walking in slow motion, and as we all come into the same shot, you realize that she is actually ten times our size. Then there is a David and Goliath type of situation where I take out a slingshot and shoot her straight in the forehead and she drops dead. It’s very weird and ugly and funny.”
Despite the unsettling conflict of "NAILS," Erez explained that it's important to release those negative emotions. “I feel like we live in a culture that says, 'Don't think those negative thoughts. Don't even let that cross your mind,' but sometimes I'm like, ‘These bitches are looking at my man, I don't want that!’ It's very, very funny. So I say, let it cross your mind, so that you can leave these things at the thought level, and get the poison out of you. The song is an invitation for everyone to feel that empowering, aggressive vibe and embrace it."
Watch the video for "NAILS" below.
