Atomic Cherry finds freedom in not playing along on new single 'Social Skills'

'Social Skills' feels like Atomic Cherry has stopped trying to be agreeable. The Istanbul-based artist's second single turns the familiar pressure to fit in into something darker and more defiant, pairing alternative hip-hop and neo-soul influences with lyrics about social masks, people-pleasing and the uncomfortable distance between how we present ourselves and how we actually feel.

Where debut single 'Somewhere in Between' leaned into dreamy alt-pop, 'Social Skills' is noticeably sharper. The haze has lifted, but what sits underneath isn't necessarily more comfortable, as Atomic Cherry focuses on the exhausting performance of monitoring your behaviour, saying the right thing, smoothing over your own edges and gradually becoming less recognisable to yourself.

The title itself carries a nice irony as "Social skills" are usually treated as something positive, a sign that someone knows how to function comfortably around others. But here, they begin to sound more like survival techniques; ways of adapting to environments that may never have felt particularly natural in the first place.

Her intimate vocal delivery keeps that frustration personal, making the conflict feel almost internal. There's this sense of somebody questioning how much effort they have spent trying to meet expectations that were never really theirs to begin with.

The darker hip-hop production complements that shift beautifully, as its moodier pulse gives the writing more bite, while the soulful undercurrent prevents the track from becoming cold or detached.

As the second track from a forthcoming EP, 'Social Skills' makes Atomic Cherry's world sound considerably more intriguing.