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Photo: Harry Were

New Zealand's first Apple Up Next artist, TikTok hitmaker, and all-around pop sensation BENEE is without question an artist to watch. And if her latest single proves anything, she is just getting started.

"Snail" follows recent Bakar and Kenny Beats-produced collaboration "Night Garden" and "Lownely," the latter being a slowed-down rework of her aforementioned TikTok hit that just so happened to be recorded the night before New Zealand went into lockdown. "Snail" finds BENEE on the other side of lockdown, finding a wellspring of inspiration from within the walls of her bedroom window. Well, technically speaking, backyard, as BENNE puts it,

"When we were in lockdown, I was fascinated by snails. There wasn't really a lot to be doing, so I would spend a lot of time outside looking at snails and would think about how they're doing their own little thing and they're all free. I just played around with the idea of being kind of like a snail and how I come out in the rain. Being stuck inside because of COVID, it's kind of my lockdown song."

The Josh Fountain-produced track sees BENEE turning her adorable slimy muse into an iridescent indie pop romp. Over a track that samples J.J. Fad's "Supersonic" - a sample which will.i.am also used to turn Fergie's "Fergalicious" into a bonafide mid-2000's hit - the New Zealand pop sensation muses on the carefree bliss of the gastropods on the other side of her window.  

The result is a track that may just be BENEE's best piece of pop-flavored escapism to date, and boy did it arrive at a perfect time.    

Listen to "Snail" below: