Brooklyn-based neo-soul artist Kristen Merritt is back with a bite on her new song and music video, “ISFTBS,” her first solo single in nearly three years and the first since the release of her debut album, Joi. A vibrant self-directed visual accompanies the release. Watch and stream the single here.

Quickly enveloping listeners in resonant instrumentation and harmonies, “ISFTBS” swings open with an unapologetic topline that proves Merrit’s songwriting is sharper than ever. Fed up with the state of the world and shaking off someone who just couldn’t get it right, an upbeat melody masks prickly truths as Merritt delivers some of her most unfiltered, raw lyrics yet, and they struck like lightning as she was writing.

“I wrote this song in the summer of 2023 as a writing exercise where you take a few words and try to craft a narrative around them. I had already recorded the intro soundbite years earlier – just as a little melody that popped into my head with most likely a situation at the time that prompted the lyrics,” shares Kristen Merritt. “With this soundbite, the writing exercise, and a new desire to experiment with sound after taking a music course led by Kimbra, ‘ISFTBS’ spilled out of me in a way like no other song had. While I consider myself vulnerable in songs in the way of love, I have never in life or music written something that was so decidedly blunt and angry. Especially not with the chosen words of the intro. It’s part anger, part exasperation, all honesty.”

Never one to shy away from the pen, “IFTBS” recalls the soulful freedom of “I’m Done,” the incredible lead single from Kristen Merritt’s debut album, which found the Detroit native digging deep to close a massive chapter of her life through the use of music. Finding its way onto Spotify’s Fresh Finds and Fresh Finds: The Wave playlists, “I’m Done,” and Merritt quickly garnered support from platforms such as Ones To Watch, Parlé Magazine, and NYS Music. Kristen followed up with the singles “I Don’t Think About You” and “Breathe,” garnering praise from Guitar Girl Magazine, Stereofox, and The Honey Pop, who declared her “the real deal.”

Now, after taking a step back to work with artists as a producer, songwriter, and vocalist, Kristen Merritt has resolved that her new music can no longer wait for its moment in the sun. The first of a few releases set for 2024, “IFTBS,” is out today, June 7th. Listen here.