Laraw captures the inner turmoil of isolation in "This Is How I Lost My Friends"

From the immediate riff and strong beat, "This Is How I Lost My Friends" gets listeners moving from the off. Produced by the song’s co-writer Michael Adubato, the track is a guitar-led pop masterclass that showcases Laraw’s clean vocals.

A tri-linguist (French, English and Arabic) with Lebanese and Moroccan roots, Laraw has found many ways to express herself and her heritage, but they all come together in her music. It’s therefore no surprise that “This Is How I Lost My Friends” is her coping mechanism for a tough and traumatic year.

“It’s all the voices in my head / I’m sorry if I’m overwhelmed / This is how I lost my friends” Laraw sings, her words sitting perfectly in the mix and aptly becoming the voice in your head as you listen. Peppy and upbeat, this chiptune-inflected song is a great product from to come out of a crappy year, and as well as apologising to her friends, the song is Laraw’s way of apologising to herself.

“I tend to blame myself a lot whenever there’s any problem in my life. ‘This is How I Lost My Friends’ is an apology to everyone I may have hurt but also to myself for not taking care of me the way I should have” says Laraw of her new single. “Last year was fucked. I just stopped talking to everyone because I had nothing left to say.

“People who’ve known me for a while know that I don’t like going out or hanging out with anyone to begin with … but last year was different,” she continues. “I needed someone to ask me how I was doing, and no one did”.