Tessa Violet and Frances Forever Team Up on 'Play With Fire'

Pop darling Tessa Violet teams up with Frances Forever on “Play With Fire (feat. Frances Forever),” a fresh take of the flirty, fan-favorite track from her sophomore LP MY GOD!.

Built around an infectious hook and the coy lyric “Here I go again, taking back what I said / that I’m never gonna play with fire,” the track is a charming ode to falling head first into a messy love affair. Both quippy and sultry “Play With Fire (feat. Frances Forever)” shows Tessa at her best: effortless, absorbing, and clever.

Frances Forever delivers the track’s closing verse, lending their ethereal alto vocals as they sings “Gasoline, nicotine / touching everything bad for me,” perfectly adding to the track’s feeling of a euphoric chase towards a destructive end. 

In July Tessa shared the MY GOD! LP, a follow up to 2019's smash success Bad Ideas. Tessa playfully integrates saccharine-sweet pop with a sharp and sultry edge, like sinking one’s teeth into sour candy. Tessa’s witty lyricism is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to female sexuality, burgeoning confidence, and the search for love that lasts.

Arrayed with an assortment of pulsing, club-friendly hits, tracks such as the viral “YES MOM” have already captured the hearts of listeners. Far from being unidimensional, the addition of stripped-down, poignant tracks such as “Good Things Go Bad” and “When The Curtain Falls” serves as a testament to Tessa’s expressiveness and versatility as an artist. 

The album’s lead single and opener “BAD BITCH” is an infectious pop track, the throbbing, high-octane bass meeting its match in the form of a twinkling, melodic xylophone line. The track serves as a triumphant celebration of Tessa’s evolution as well as a compelling warning to all who listen: “now i’m on that brave s / look at me I made it”, “take that, I’m still the one to beat yeah.”

Earlier this summer Tessa released the effervescent pop track “MY GOD!” in anticipation of her album of the same name. Flirty and bubbly, the song serves as a hymn to the thrill of a new, idyllic lover, cheekily incorporating aspects of religious worship in her lyrics: “I just want to be devoured / Hot and sticky in the shower / ‘Hallelujah’ say it louder.”

Accompanying “MY GOD!” was the release of the fan-favorite hit “YES MOM”, which has already accrued almost 28 million streams on Spotify, and punk-rock-inspired “You Are Not My Friend.” The two singles serve as an alluring lead to all listeners, enticing them to see what else the album offers - while “YES MOM” is infused with cutting percussion and strings, “You Are Not My Friend” is a sonic divergence from her signature pop sound, instead calling out to any fans of the Y2K revival.

Synth embellishments complement Tessa's exploration of her worst habits on “Breakdown”, while a singalong hook reminiscent of a campfire song accompanies a declaration of unconditional love on “Kitchen Song” (which also features in its unplugged rendition as the closing track to the album).

The track list becomes more introspective with guitar-centric “Again Again” and “Good Things Go Bad”, where Tessa mournfully laments lost love, while “when the curtain falls” recalls the pressures of the spotlight against a haunting, muted piano accompaniment. “song without a title” and “I Don’t Know Who I Am Without You” round out the track list, serving as heartbreak anthems perfectly suited for screaming along in the club or alone in the car, once again proving Tessa’s variability.

MY GOD! is a masterful culmination of Tessa’s years as an artist in the public eye, combining her ear for viral, algorithm-friendly pop hits with a soulful, vulnerable expression of finding self-love and pursuing one’s fantasies against the pressures of the spotlight and the pains of past loss. 

Well known for her social-media savvy (she began building a fanbase on YouTube back in the late aughts) Tessa Violet has racked up a slew of viral hits since the release of her debut album Bad Ideas in 2019.

With 37 million likes on TikTok, 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, and multiple trending audios (the most notable being viral phenomenon “YES MOM”) it is clear that Tessa Violet has her finger directly on the pulse of what artistry commands attention in the digital age. She has collaborated with fellow tastemakers in the pop genre like Cavetown, Lovelytheband, MisterWives, Chloe Moriondo, and Will Joseph Cook. 

In May, Tessa wrapped a 24-date tour supporting half•alive, and she is featured on the band's live recording of "Never Been Better," shared earlier this month. Tessa is currently on the road for her headlining MY GOD! tour in North America with support from Frances Forever, followed by a European tour with Cavetown. 

"MY GOD!" TOUR DATES:

August 17: Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall

August 18: Chicago, IL @ House of Blues

August 19: Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre

August 21: Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave/Eagles Club

August 22: Minneapolis, MN  @ Varsity Theater

August 24: Saint Louis, MO @ Old Rock House

August 25: Omaha, NE @ Slowdown

August 27: Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre

August 28: Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell

August 30: Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre

August 31: Seattle, WA @ Showbox

September 1: Portland, OR @ The Star

September 3: Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post

September 4: San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

September 6: Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre

September 7: San Diego, CA @ Music Box 

CAVETOWN TOUR DATES:

September 19: Paris, France @ L'Olympia

September 20: Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg

September 21: Cologne, Germany @ Palladium

September 22: Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg

September 24: London, England @ Alexandra Palace

Photo Credit: Sarah Pardini

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