Artists You Should Know: Often Returns with a Scathing Rebuff on New Single "Cross Me"

Los Angeles-based Often adds to her repertoire of ethereal pop with the release of new single “Cross Me,” a merciless rebuff that’s delivered over a haunting melody. Raised from an early age within an suffocatingly oppressive religious community and family, her debut album Dirty Saint arrived just two years ago. Sinking its teeth into the trauma and self-actualized beauty of her complicated youth.

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With her latest single “Cross Me,” Often still wields that hauntingly enigmatic allure that made her first record so emotionally enthralling. Steeped in a mercurial mixture of alt-R&B atmospherics and dark-pop energy the track is a foreboding warning. “You can cross me out / Don’t need to know you better,” her dulcet cries dripping with venom. “Keep my name out your mouth / Blood on my knees and I’ll stand up with ease.”

The song also still finds Often covered in the religious imagery that colors much of her music thus far. “Lost all faith in me,” she coos on the song’s intro. “I got dirty.” Against the track’s restless rhythms and obscured but concussive beats she questions direly: “Were you a savior / Or fantasy?”

Fans of that particularly rapt intersection of eclectic pop meets the griefs of organized religion — in the vein of Ethel Cain — beware. Both the new single and Dirty Saint are going to end up on repeat for days at a time. You’ll also want to check out Often’s other recent releases like “Brightstar,” where she channels her talents for creating engrossing soundscapes, and the meandering sonorousness of “I Don’t Mean It.”