While Malaysian indie singer-songwriter Yuna (Yunalis Zara'ai) is best known for "Crush", her heartwarming and romantic duet with Usher, most of the tracks from her breakthrough album (2016) were characterized by romantic discontent. With "Don't Call Me", her collaboration with Los Angeles DJ and producer TOKiMONSTA (Jennifer Lee), she revisits familiar lyrical territory with effortlessly smooth and layered vocals which are reminiscent of 90s R&B sensations like TLC and Destiny's Child:
'I never thought this love could go so wrongAnd so it did and you know that I moved onI never heard from you for so longNow I’m glowing up, you’re blowing up my phone
I know you’re tryna see if I still care that I miss youKnow you never thought that I could be this coolKnow you didn’t think that I could be this cruelI don’t need to be mean but I’m just gonna ignore you
Don’t call me no more'
Lyrics: YourEDM
TOKiMONSTA's atmospheric fusion of EDM and instrumental hip hop lends more dynamic energy to Yuna's narrative of heartbreak and separation than before (e.g. in similarly-themed tracks such as "Mannequin" and "Lanes"), with booming percussion fully occupying the silences that punctuate Yuna's hypnotic vocals. Yuna seems more than ready to move on, and the track's kineticism drives home the fact that she is done with lamenting about what might have been. It's a great showcase of TOKiMONSTA's production skills, placing further weight behind her recent apperance on a VICE panel about female music producers' fight for equality in the music industry.
