Building on the hypnotic sounds they established on their 2021 debut album Add a Little Honey, Intimate Partners’ return today catches the duo emerging from the confines of home recording to take their brand of dreamy bedroom-pop to the next level. If their debut release felt like a peek into the duo’s intricately crafted universe - understandably so since the project came to life within Melbourne’s 2020 lockdown - ‘Your Voice (Never Leave)’ blossoms open outwards, bathing us in its expansive sheen.

Instantly evocative, the track opens with Alison Ainsworth’s assured vocals over a gentle synthesiser hum, before bursting open in kaleidoscopic fashion with a swirl of woozy keyboard layers and a simmering groove. As the gleaming synths and textural guitars tangle, we’re immersed in a deliriously muggy atmosphere, that’s only offset by Alison’s elusive performance which comes simultaneously loaded with melancholy and euphoria to give the track an especially heady edge. However, despite the turbulent undercurrents that bubble beneath the track, at its core ‘Your Voice (Never Leave)’ is a pop song, and by the final chorus, there’s no point fighting that fact that every soaring hook has easily wormed its way into our brains.

With the press release noting the effects of post-lockdown life on the project, it’s fitting that the first of Intimate Partner’s new music touches on similar themes, with its lyrics “revolving around the longing for lost memories and the ability to go back to a time when life was simpler”. Speaking about the track, Intimate Partners reveal that this transition was no accident though - “the aim for our new music revolved around the prompt ‘Taylor Swift fronting The War On Drugs’, and inspired us to combine our love of pop melodies with our shoegaze and dream-pop influences” - suggesting there’s plenty more to look forward to.