Katherine Li Releases Debut Album I LOVE YOU, OR WHATEVER

Indie pop singer-songwriter Katherine Li released her debut album, I Love You, or Whatever, via Music Soup. The 12-track album is structured like a rom-com, following a love story from beginning to end, with emphasis on self-discovery.

For her debut album, 23-year-old Katherine Li channels the charm, hopefulness, anxiety, jealousy, despair, and ultimately, joyfulness of her favorite rom-coms for an album showcasing the arc of a relationship in its various permutations. Conceived in four acts, the dozen songs are filled with emotional vulnerability and heart-on-sleeve songwriting that has earned Li a following since her original songs posted to TikTok garnered millions of views.

The lead single off the album, 'Hate Her Enough,' has an accompanying music video highlighting self-reflection and exploring the themes of jealousy and hyper fixation in romantic relationships.

Li first found her audience on TikTok and was profiled by The New Yorker in its piece about artists rising through the platform. She has taken that online following and built a community around it, organizing listening parties, Zoom movie marathons, in-person meetups and sending fans handwritten postcards and thank-you notes. Li has amassed 125M+ Spotify streams, built a 171K+ Instagram following with high fan engagement, supported artists like Hayley Kiyoko and mxmtoon, and was previously featured on Spotify's Fresh Finds.

Li states, 'I've been making songs for this album for the last 2 years. Going into it, and being my first full length album, I was intentional about building my story from what I've released thus far. Most of my previous songs are very one-sided and unrequited, and I wanted to grow from that in my songwriting and also grow in how the songs sound production-wise. The songs on this album explore more topics like love (two-sided!), and also coming-of-age topics like comparison, and fitting in, which really fit the rom-com theme the album is going for. Although rom-coms obviously have romance, I think it's important that they also come with self-growth from the characters and I think the songs on this album reflect that too. I feel like the last 2 years of making this album, I've grown a lot and I want this album to show it. It's the most vulnerable I think I've been in my songwriting, I'm nervous about it but also hoping that anyone who relates can see themselves in these songs too.'

I Love You, or Whatever Tracklisting

So Cliché

Mr. Get Any Girl

Thief

The Understudy

Blend In

Carbon Copy

Hate Her Enough

Glad You're Happy

Whatever Major Loser

One Foot Out

I'm Still Here

I Love You, or Whatever