New Music: ORKID – Wait, Don’t Go!

Once you hear the sumptuous dark pop of Wait, Don’t Go!, you won’t be surprised to learn that the music of ORKID has appeared in video games.

While her recent track, Ethereal, appears on the official soundtrack of EA Sports FC 27, the doomy, emotional tempest that fuels the lyrics of ORKID’s latest single is more likely to appear in TV series that lean heavily into high-stakes relationships and hidden feelings.

The emotional and psychological origins of the track come from somewhere else, however, as the Swedish artist uses her vocal resemblance to Lana Del Rey and knack for lyrics with the tension and timbre of Kate Bush to look at grief.

Against a background of lushly arranged dream pop with a trip-hop beat, ORKID looks at an unmentioned part of grieving – the gradual process where a loved one slowly slips from our present and into our memory. Grief doesn’t fade, but memories can – and sometimes that hurts even more than grief itself.

“Wait, Don’t Go! lives in that space, the fear of waking up one day and realising you’ve forgotten the way they laughed, the way they looked at you, the sound of their voice,” states ORKID. “You lose someone once in real life, and then slowly, you lose them again inside your own mind.”

Wait, Don’t Go! is streaming on all major music platforms, including Spotify and SoundCloud. For artist news and other listening options for ORKID’s music, connect with the artist on Facebook and Instagram.

Header image by Adam Falk