Shura Goes Disco on New Single “Religion (U Can Lay Your Hands On Me)”

Shura, the queer British bedroom-pop goddess, is back, and she’s not 2Shy anymore. Her debut album, 2016’s Nothing’s Real, established Shura’s talent at channeling the awkwardness and loneliness of queer youth for misfit anthems like “Touch.” But “BKLYNLDN,” the first single off her forthcoming sophomore album forevher, mixed downtempo R&B and lounge pop in an ode to long-distance booty calls, without a shred of her former reticence.

And it seems like Shura has a good thing going, because her latest song, “religion (u can lay your hands on me),” is all about the ultimate long-distance booty call, the one between a sweet young worshipper and the Lord—the female Lord, obviously. Shura sings in her trademark whispery falsetto over a frisky disco beat, “I want to consecrate your body, turn the water to wine.” On the chorus, Shura abandons all her flirty profane metaphors as the canned string section comes in, bluntly telling her lover that “you can lay your hands on me.” The end result is a campy dance-floor number that fuses the sex of Donna Summer with the ridiculousness of The Weather Girls.

Shura’s forthcoming album forevher is out Aug. 16 on Secretly Canadian. You can preorder the LP here.

Check out Shura’s Young Pope-inspired music video for “religion (u can lay your hands on me)” (dir. Chloe Wallace) below, along with the details of forevher and her tour dates.

forevher Album Art: