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Music has long been a way for artists to cope with their struggles, which, in a twisted ouroboros of fate, often stem from the desire to be a musician or living an artist's lifestyle. Whether it's Lil Nas X sleeping on his sister's apartment floor or 12-year-old 50 Cent selling crack at school, the road to stardom is never easy. Australian artist LOVER captures this sentiment via his latest track "Starving," a sultry, indie-R&B fusion composition that sounds like Bon Iver took a day trip to Harlem.  

"Starving" flows seamlessly from the torpid opening bars through two minutes and 34 seconds of groove that culminates in a tectonic grind of sound. At the start of the track, LOVER introduces the track's drivetrain in a slinky rhythm section championed by boozy drums and viscous bass. Layering in shimmering falsetto and a heat-haze of electric guitar, the song smolders into an extended outro culminating in beautifully constructed, trumpet-adorned anarchy.

On the inspiration behind the song, LOVER elaborated,

"Lyrically I was thinking about music and the struggle in pursuing, not being able to afford groceries - the classic starving artist cliché. The lyric 'I'm starving in front of friends, but they eat anyway' is meant to be a personal aphorism; that even if I'm doing all this artist stuff, my friends and family deep down don't really care - so don't take it too seriously and just have fun with it. I get so stressed and anxious about stuff that in the end no one really cares about, and won't matter."

"Starving," which is co-produced by longtime collaborator Tanssi and Gold Cost trio daste, is the lead single off of LOVER's upcoming debut EP. Watch the music video exclusively below: