Oh Wonder dropped brand new track “Fuck It, I Love You”—the second preview of upcoming album 22 Make, which will see its release on Republic Records on July 22nd and follows the beautiful single “Magnificent“. The band’s huge run of global dates begins this week and includes a homecoming show at London’s Brixton Academy on April 21st.
“Fuck It I Love You” is piano-driven pop at Oh Wonder‘s finest, a bridge in many ways between the worlds of accompanying albums 22 Make and 2021’s 22 Break. It was written way back in the summer of 2020 and represented a glimmer of hope for the couple, then in the throes of what seemed like the end of both the band and the couple’s relationship. “We clung to the demo for months, secretly hoping that we’d get to release ‘Fuck It I Love You’ in happier times. It was almost like the song was telling us that we couldn’t break up and disband because it needed to be released. It probably kept us together!” Now though, adds Josephine, “We’re struggling for a non-explicit version.”
Introduced in beguiling style by the first single “Magnificent”, 22 Make is the surprise second half of alt-pop duo Oh Wonder’s 22 Break project. Its first half dropped with little warning towards the end of 2021, unpicking a turbulent period in the band’s incredible story: here were universal themes (loneliness, inadequacy, resentment, fears for the future) as experienced by one couple in real-time, all blown up in the pandemic. Not many bands can make a break-up album that culminates in them tying the knot—but then again, Oh Wonder has never been like other bands. Coming out of 22 Break and all the soul-searching that it forced them to do, Josephine and Anthony got married and channeled all this into 22 Make: a whole new album soundtracking the light at the end of a tunnel and realizing despite everything—”fuck It, I Love You”.
“When we nearly broke up during the pandemic, we used music as a way out,” Oh Wonder writes, introducing the project in its entirety. “We wrote all our pain, sadness, and confusion into a collection of songs that we eventually released as the album 22 Break. But for us, that was only half of the story. We managed to survive our rocky patch and emerge stronger than ever and full of love for each other. It only felt right therefore, to write about the other side, where you realize not just that you’re meant for each other, but also that it also takes two people to make a love flourish. We are thrilled to be releasing ’22 Make’, an album full of love and life-affirming songs that reflect on fate, gratitude, and being there for someone.”
This transformative period continues Oh Wonder’s remarkable, homegrown success story. 2020’s acclaimed No One Else Can Wear Your Crown continued a run of back-to-back top 10 albums from the band who have—on their own distinct terms—become one of UK pop’s more unsuspecting breakthroughs (2.7 billion streams, 1.7 million adjusted album sales, and vocal fans in the likes of Billie Eilish). Oh Wonder even founded and literally built from the ground up the hugely popular Nola cafe in Peckham early on in the pandemic. Through opening up to their fans and each other, the ‘Make or Break?’ poised by 22 Break and 22 Make appears not so much a question, as an active choice—to be as honest as possible, to move forward, and to begin a brand new chapter in the story of Oh Wonder.
