After undergoing a reincarnation of sorts with her third LP in 2021, BONZIE returned late last year with a new single called spiritual violence which, with the help of Chicago vocalist Teo the Artist, explored the realm of alt-R&B. With no word on a follow-up to that last album, the songwriter returns today with another new track that pairs BONZIE’s vocals with an ominously building ambient hum created with looped piano samples that unravels into twinkling (and less manipulated) keys in the track’s final moments. “My friend Hayden Easterling (a.k.a. Lucent) created a homemade synth world for it to live in,” she shares of the track’s vivid textures. “I mixed and mastered it to feel like an immersive deep dive into one’s memory. It should feel like a 3D world.”
Speaking of 3D worlds, the visual for the track takes listeners of a certain age to a familiar digital world: the vibrant landscape from Super Mario 64. But rather than battling with Boswer’s goons (and, more infuriatingly, the Nintendo 64 game’s finicky camera controls), the title character is swapped for an erratic and non-violent bird-like creature under a ghost-like sheet. “The visual simulator for ‘Citrus’ is a journey one will take with a certain silly bird in Mario’s Castle,” BONZIE elaborates. “It’s full of twists and turns but hopefully in the end our bird friend will find what they are adventuring for.”
Watch the video below, and stream the song here.
