British hip-hop artist and poet TEE dwells in the dark, vulnerable depths of intimacy on ‘LOOP,’ a soul-stirring reflection on love, dating loops, and life’s little moments of meaningful connection.

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Stream: “LOOP” – TEE

Find some way to be relatable in the mundane of the dating loop.

Beautifully intimate and breathtakingly vulnerable, TEE’s sophomore EP opens with a heartfelt, heavy question.

“Do you dare to chance it, and finish off what we started?” the Liverpool artist sings, his aching voice hot on the mic as he searches for deeper connection. “If I say the right thing, and the drink just keeps pouring, there might be a little more than pleasure…” The moment is raw, loaded with intense emotion; disillusioned from experience and weighed down by the past, TEE nevertheless approaches love with longing, hope, and passion, his eyes wide and his soul ready to dive into something special.

Isn’t that how so many of us feel about love – and its pursuit? It’ll wear us down, eat at us, tear us up from inside out, but still we can’t live without it. TEE dwells in the dark, vulnerable depths of intimacy on LOOP, a soul-stirring reflection on love, dating loops, and life’s little moments of meaningful connection.

I don’t really write love songs
but I think this might be the love one
We’ve been here before, but it’s rerun
feels like the start of a comeback season

’cause I tried to be apart from you
gravity made a powerful two
I didn’t even want to start the loop
but it circled right back to you…

– “the LOVE one,” TEE

Released November 10, 2023 via TLD Records, LOOP is best experienced not as five individual tracks, but as one cinematic eight-minute experience. In his press release for this project, TEE even goes so far as to reject the idea of it being an EP or a string of singles at all, instead asserting that this is a story told through music and visuals.

And he’s right to say that. Seamless production and shared DNA turn LOOP‘s five songs into a single, seductive epic poem. The follow-up to TEE’s debut EP A DOZEN ROSES // A Love Story, which Atwood Magazine had the honor of premiering back in 2021, sees the British multi-hyphenate artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist (and more) crafting a stunning world of moody, brooding sound and visceral feeling. From the tension and turbulence of “we can crash, right?” and the undulating, bittersweet warmth of “the LOVE one” to the jazzy, melodramatic “TAINTED,” the fiery fever dream “in the coupe” and the poignant acceptance of “it is what it is.,” LOOP tells a tender story of hopeful hellos and wistful goodbyes… and the cycle of love and longing repeats.

“A lot of the time with the music that I create, it comes from really heavy emotions; vulnerability, overcoming adversity, believing in yourself, etc.,” TEE tells Atwood Magazine. “These are all things that I feel have a massive weight or burden. But these aren’t the emotions that you feel all the time.”

“I wanted to talk about more of the little things,” he says about LOOP. “The people that may only be in your life for a month, but still have a lasting impact. The daily emotions you may go through whilst dating, that don’t seem important enough to even explore. Find some way to be relatable in the mundane of the dating loop. Hopefully this makes sense to you.”

aren’t you done?
tired of you screeching again
we drift from this to that
but we been round this bend
then I drop it into second,
fly through the intersection
see we’ve been here before
what’s there to get into again?

– “in the coupe,” TEE

Fact is, you saw an interaction, reacted
I guess this is the part where I ask
Where’s the justice?
‘Cause whilst you’re here,
looking for all these problems
Feel like I’m the only one
trying to find where the trust is…

– “in the coupe,” TEE

TEE has been one of our favorite musical poets for a long time now, but a limited output kept us from appreciating the full depth of his talents. While LOOP is admittedly brief, it’s nevertheless a spellbinding story we will cherish, embrace, and spin on repeat – a hot record to keep us warm in the cold months ahead. There’s reportedly more music to come in 2024, so be sure to keep an eye out for TEE, one of our 2024 Artists to Watch!

And for now, dwell in the heartrending depths of LOOP.

I lost some friends over optics
hoped you’d be the one
that would see right through it
through the lens it’s prettier than what I see
you’re still the prettiest that I’ve seen
guess this is my open letter
but is it meant for you to read,
or to make me better?
that was your problem all along
if I told you my truths,
but I put ’em in a song…

– “TAINTED,” TEE

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:: stream/purchase LOOP here ::

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Stream: “it is what it is.” – TEE

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LOOP

a story by TEE