The track opens with a slow melancholic introduction led by Au/Ra’s intimate vocals paving the way to a groovy and atmospheric chorus. The catchy rhythm and deep minimalistic bassline reminds of Jax Jones’ signature house material, with the only thing missing here being the iconic line “Watcha watcha gonna do?“.

‘i miss you‘ premiered with official video release on Friday, directed by the team at La Familia London as established creative partners of Jax Jones for previous visualizations and album promotions.  The video sees Hannah Ekholm dancing alone under the pouring rain at an abandon warehouse, with the DJ himself delivering a lonely set alongside holographic image of Au/Ra, a powerful visual metaphor of the separation, distancing and isolation that unexpectedly took over 2020.

Reinforcing the message behind the new track, Jax Jones took it to Twitter to share that “we all miss something right now and i miss u is supposed to highlight that and remind ourselves that it’s ok to feel this way sometimes“. The DJ continued with a not-so-subtle dig at Rishi Sunak following his contoversial recent statement that sent the UK music industry in uproar, and reminded everyone “music is more important than ever” in the mad times we live in.

i miss u is finally out in the world we all miss something right now and i miss u is supposed to highlight that and remind ourselves that it’s ok to feel this way sometimes. despite what rishi says music is more important than ever https://t.co/Lt5VOZ9NHF pic.twitter.com/QsMZRrU6gl

— JaxJones (@JaxJones) October 9, 2020

Jax Jones hardly needs introduction after holding a prime spot at the UK club scene ever since his uplifting debut team-up with Duke Dumont for ‘I Got U‘ from 2014. Born Timucin Aluo to a multi-ethnic household with diverse musical influences, the English DJ has been a regular feature at the global dance charts with smash hits like ‘Breathe (ft. Ina Wroldsen)‘, ‘You Don’t Know Me (ft. RAYE)‘ and ‘Instruction (ft. Demi Lovato & Stefflon Don)‘ all featured in his debut record Snacks (Supersize) from 2019. More recently, Jax Jones has been involved with the music project Europa with Martin Solveig that produced the latest banger ‘Tequila‘ and 2019’s hottest dance hit ‘All Day and Night‘.

Born Jamie Stenzel, the Antiguan-German singer know as Au/Ra (a nickname combining the chemical symbols for gold and radium) has been consistently growing in popularity as both a talented solo artist and powerful featured vocalist. She is the driving force behind Alen Walker’s ‘Darkside‘, the brilliantly suitable vocal partner to Kina in ‘Feel Again‘, and the original composer of ‘Panic Room‘ which remix by the British house duo CamelPhat is set to feature on their upcoming debut album Dark Matter.

Вижте тази публикация в Instagram.

„i miss u“ w @jaxjones IS OUT BEANS 。.:☆*:･'(*⌒―⌒*) we’re all missing someone or something with how weird the world has been. it’s okay to feel that and I hope this song lets u (while dancing lol) link in bio.

Публикация, споделена от Au/Ra (@heyitsau_ra) на Окт 9, 2020 в 8:27 PDT

Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a little longer to truly appreciate Romy’s banger, because it’s practically begging to be played in a club. This total burst of energy is certainly reminiscent of some of the major 90s dance-floor fillers – and also, I would point out, an eighties synth vibe of the Tears For Fears variety. To me it also has just a twinkle of ‘Life In A Northern Town’ about it. What I’m saying is, if ‘Lifetime’ had come on at the eighties night at university, it would hardly have been out of place.

Romy wants us to understand that dance hits are important to her, from the eighties to the Ibiza scene; she wrote on social media, “I’ve always loved club classics that unite a room, big emotional dance songs, that you can sing along to as well. I’m excited to have the opportunity to show my love for dance music with ‘Lifetime’.

She added with a bittersweet note, “I loved working with a very talented and inspiring group of people on this song, thank you so much Fred again, Marta Salogni, Joy Anonymous and Jamie xx. I had dreamt that we could be dancing in a room together to this song by now, but until then I hope you can dance to it wherever you are!”

Afterwards I’ll be premiering the lyric video on YouTube at 6:45pm BSThttps://t.co/bdGeQDzGpu

— Romy (@romyromyromy) September 28, 2020

Beneath its catchy, neon, dance surface, ‘Lifetime’ is wrestling with greater concepts of time and making the most of everything. “Once in a lifetime / something matters,” Romy declares as the music falls away and we are suspended in the moment, thinking about how special everything is. She has spoken about the song wanting “to appreciate the moment before its gone”.

We’re all familiar with this urge these days, and Romy is clear that the moment could be anything, from a huge night out to a quiet moment with your loved ones – “simple moments of togetherness, meant the most to me,” she began to realise during the pandemic. But it also feels like the perfect sentiment for those few minutes on the dance floor where you’re having the time of your life and its all lights and colours and you don’t know what the time is or how long you’ve been there. Inevitably, clubbing can’t sustain that perfect haze for very long, but the stars might just align for three minutes when you hear ‘Lifetime’ on the dancefloor for the first time.