British soul artist Laura Mvula has released a new stunning single “Church Girl” along with a stunning music video. The song is from her new album Pink Noise which is due for release on July 2, 2021. Her last studio album The Dreaming Room was released in 2016.

From the very beginning, this video is absolutely radiant, proving that minimalism can still pack a punch. The lighting is beautiful (to note, typical ‘bisexual lighting’ effect going on; hues of pinks, blues, and purples.) The backup dancers are dressed as ‘devils’ and, although only two male dancers have horns, they are still very much synchronized perfectly. Meanwhile, throughout the video Laura Mvula is remarkable.

The song is catchy, it’s a perfect pop song. The playful bass and synth give a very 1980’s dance vibe and it’s definitely a song to play at house parties or just when you want to dance at home. A lot of it reminisces of Whitney Houston’s career in the 1980’s–the fun and dance songs that Houston delivered throughout that era. The lyrics in “Church Girl” do give a hint of being yourself, of no longer chasing clout and just resonating and being comfortable with oneself; of finding true content within you.

“I am not my story. For so long I identified as the things that happen in my life, the things I do, good or bad. I’m letting go of this mind-made ‘me’. I’m coming home to myself beyond the realm of forms. I am not the thoughts in my head, or the things I achieve, or the shape of my haircut. I no longer ‘dance with the devil’ on my back. I’m basking in the light of knowing my true self, the deeper ‘I’,” said Mvula.

“This is the album I always wanted to make. Every corner is made warm with sunset tones of the 80s. I was born in 1986. I came out of the womb wearing shoulder pads. I absorbed the dynamism of the 80s aesthetic right from my first moments on this planet. Wrestling with identity seems to be one of the rites of passage of the established artist. Making ‘Pink Noise’ felt like the most violent of emotional wrestling matches. It took 3 years of waiting and waiting and fighting and dying and nothingness and then finally and explosion of sound. As if it was always here this record is my most honest and unapologetic flying of the freedom flag. In my adult years I had forgotten how important dance was to me as a vital tool of my creative expression. I brought it back, just for me, so I could find my delight in dance again. And now I can’t stop dancing. I can’t wait to play this alum live,” she continued to say about the album.

Last month, Mvula released a single from the new upcoming album.