Boston singer and songwriter Ella Williams released her debut LP as Squirrel Flower, I Was Born Swimming, on Polyvinyl in 2019. Now she's announced its follow-up, Planet (i), due out June 25 via Polyvinyl. Ali Chant produced the album, which was written mostly before COVID and recorded in Bristol in fall of 2020. "Planet (i) is my body and mind, and it’s the physical and emotional world of our planet," Ella says. "It’s both.” You can see the cover art and tracklisting below.
The first single is "Hurt a Fly," which you can watch the video for below. "'“Hurt A Fly' is me embodying a persona of gaslighting, narcissistic soft-boy type shit," Ella says. "The classic 'sorry I acted violently, I’m not mad that you got upset at me, wanna hang out next week?'. I wanted to see what it was like to be a character trying to skirt around accountability. It’s an angry and unhinged song, and for the video I wanted to be inside a bubble writhing around and trying to get out. A stranger filmed me practicing choreography at a public park, submitted it to a meme page making fun of 'influencers,' and the video got 1,000,000 views, which in my mind is perfect thematically."