In July, Katie Malco released “Fatal Attraction” with Laura Stevenson, her first new material since her 2020 debut Failures. On Tuesday, the British singer-songwriter returned with the poignant tune “Babette” featuring SOAK.

“I wrote ‘Babette’ after a phone call with someone, where I felt I didn’t say any of the right things, they couldn’t hear me (literally and metaphorically), and ultimately, when I hung up, I felt that I didn’t fit into their life,” Malco said.

“I think the phone call is an analogy for not always knowing how to fit into social situations,” she continued. “I’m either too quiet and reserved or too loud and boisterous, but I can’t help it. I guess my personality can be a little too extreme in one direction or the other, and when I wrote ‘Babette,’ I felt helpless to change it.”

Bridie Monds-Watson, aka SOAK, added, “Myself and Katie navigated our way through North America with little more than our drivers’ licences and delusion a year or so back. Night after night when Katie began ‘Babette’ the relief was immediate. Not only had we successfully located the venue and survived that day’s gas station ‘lunch’ but we were really doing the thing! We were playing music in towns with names we couldn’t pronounce to handfuls of welcoming strangers. What more could we have asked for?”

Listen below.