Music
Sky Ferreira's “Leash” Lyrics Evoke A Dark & Kinky Affair
She’s finally back.
It hasn’t been easy to be a Sky Ferreira fan. After bursting onto the scene as the alt-pop It girl of the Tumblr era with her 2013 album Night Time, My Time, the artist fell alarmingly silent. She released a few one-off tracks here and there, but now, Ferreira is making her true comeback at long last with her first single as an independent artist.
Titled “Leash,” the hazy, synth-forward pop song was written for the soundtrack of Nicole Kidman’s new erotic drama Babygirl. Fittingly, the track’s lyrics revolve around the movie’s central themes of sexual power and destruction. Much like Kidman’s character, who engages in a sadomasochistic affair with her intern, Ferreira invokes gory imagery to describe a toxic romance.
Chains are heavy, pull me close to you / Every scrape leads me back to you / All the hate is a gift that grew
Although the song is overtly sexual, its elements of feeling trapped ring true to Ferreira’s professional struggles. The singer recently confirmed she took inspiration from her well-documented issues with her former label Capitol Records when writing her first independent release.
“I connected to the material so much, even though my circumstances are so different from the world of the film,” Ferreira told Vogue. “[Capitol Records] kept me from putting out new music for 10 years as a way of making me look like I’m incapable of it. I’m able to do a song for an A24 film after all this time because that first album clearly meant something to people.”
“Leash” will be prominently featured in Babygirl, which arrives in movie theaters Dec. 25.
