In 2020, Brooklyn’s Katie Malco shared her debut album Failure. She’s been quiet since, and today the singer-songwriter is back with “Fatal Attraction” featuring Laura Stevenson.

“I lived alone throughout lockdown and became obsessed with erotic thrillers,” Malco explained in a statement. She continued:

I have a monthly newsletter where I do a rambling deep dive on a classic / weird movie each month, so I guess I’m into leftfield / cult movies in general. However, the erotic thriller is such a strange genre of movie, and one that could only ever have existed in the era it did. I watched basically every movie starring Michael Douglas, including the most classic of all the erotic thrillers — Fatal Attraction.

Strangely, I realized that Fatal Attraction might be one of the most relatable movies I’ve ever seen. The scariest and most gripping parts are in the intense rage felt at the hands of selfish and careless behaviour and the self-loathing that comes with it. It almost becomes an analogy of society at large, where the men always seem to get away with it, and nobody else does. Boiling bunnies and stalking aside, you could liken Glen Close’s character to the entire non-male population, fighting to be heard and to be equal.

A local BBC review once said that I was “a woman scorned” — for a song I wrote and released when I was a teenager. I thought it was such an odd way to frame somebody’s pain, especially somebody so young, and it’s a phrase only ever applied to a woman. You’ve never heard of “a man scorned.”

About the collaboration, Stevenson added:

Katie and I toured together in the UK, and then I asked her to support on my 2023 US tour celebrating 10 years of my album Wheel. She was recording new music at the time, and we had been performing her song “Brooklyn” together at the shows during her set, so we figured out some harmonies on her new song “Fatal Attraction” and recorded my vocals on the track whilst on the road. We first met when we played the same showcase at SXSW and struck up a conversation in the bathroom of all places. And here we are, two tours and a song later…

“Fatal Attraction” is contained but crushing, moving with the misty pain reminiscent of Phoebe Bridgers’ debut Stranger In The Alps. Listen below.