PREMIERE: Cat Matthews Shares “Kaleidoscope Eyes”

Today, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Cat Matthews has released her newest single “Kaleidoscope Eyes,” the latest track from her upcoming debut LP due next year. The songs off the album, co-produced with Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers, Maya Hawke), were written by Matthews entirely in her head—after a five-centimeter trachea tear from an incorrect anesthesia tube removal caused her to lose her voice.

“Kaleidoscope Eyes,” a dreamy reflection driven by an alternating harp and harmonica melody, is Matthews taking a “hard look at a misguided relationship.” It’s soothing and glittery, but ends in a cathartic whirlwind of drums clattering and smashing against each other—a satisfying release that Matthews is finally able to let out after months of silence. The singer grapples with resentment, defined by the abrupt ending of a second-chance romance, and “Kaleidoscope Eyes” portrays the fluctuating, unsteady journey that this “cruel emotional affair” took her through.

“I felt so much misplaced guilt and assumed a lot of self-loathing,” she shares. “One night as I was grappling with my feelings, crying in my car, the street lights looked glimmery and fuzzy and beautiful through my tears. I wrote this song the next day.”

Listen to “Kaleidoscope Eyes” below.