Artists You Should Know: Rachel Chinouriri Craves Home Over the “The Hills” of L.A. on New Single and Music Video

South London artist Rachel Chinouriri has shared the lead single off her forthcoming debut album, capturing the poignant bittersweetness of missing home on the anthemic “The Hills.” She also currently has a handful of U.K. tour dates coming up next month in support of Louis Tomlinson, as well as a headlining show at London’s KOKO — her most significant to date — set for March of next year.

Over the past four years, Chinouriri has fostered her wide-ranging sound across an array of multi-genre releases. Her 2019 Mama’s Boy EP that served as a debut introduced her penchant for penning beguilingly introspective songs, syncing them to buoyantly resounding bedroom pop soundscapes.

Just a couple of years later, she returned with the far more meditative Four° in Winter EP. Songs like “Darker Place” and “Plain Jane” find her delving into the depths of a particularly grim season in her life, mirroring that emotional landscape with its moodily alt-pop melodies.

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Chinouriri’s most recent EP, Better Off Without saw her returning to her indie roots, something she strived for despite constant attempts to label her music with misnomers like hip-hop and soul. Although tracing the end of a relationship, the four-track collection basks in the sunny bliss of finally escaping the storm clouds that once brooded over her. Its first two tracks — the ebulliently triumphant “All I Ever Asked” and the dreamy, harmony-lush “Happy Ending” — arrive as weightlessly gleeful indie-pop.

Her new single “The Hills” splits the difference between the dispositions and sounds of those last two EPs. Exploring feelings of isolation and homesickness that emerged while spending a month in Los Angeles, where an inability to connect with other people on a creative or personal level unearthed a realization of how much she missed the U.K.

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The track opens suitably with a clamor of heavy riffs that crackle and roar before relinquishing to Chinouriri’s rallying cries that earnestly pine for home. Both musically and visually — the single comes with a music video directed by Jake Erland that features walking across London — she found herself inspired by the nostalgia she held for fellow U.K. artists like Lilly Allen, Kate Nash, and Coldplay.

Bristling with a fiery alt-rock intensity, the song reaffirms her position as a producer of vibrantly openhearted and emotionally liberating music. Chinouriri confidently relishes her invigorating love for her hometown on “The Hills” and heralds a new chapter of her ever-evolving sound.

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Words: Steven Ward

Visit Rachel Chinouriri on her website, TikTok, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.

Watch the music video for “The Hills,” the new single from Rachel Chinouriri, below!