Sarah Kinsley Returns With 'Lonely Touch,' an Aching Meditation on Impermanence

Words by Matt Keenan

There's a specific kind of courage required to build an entire body of work around the knowledge that nothing lasts. Sarah Kinsley's upcoming EP "Fleeting" is due out February 13th via Verve Forecast and it doesn't just acknowledge impermanence — it leans into it, finding beauty in the ache of transience itself. 

Following the critical success of her 2024 debut album "Escaper," Kinsley returns with what she describes as "a promise to yearn, to long, to feel deeply and truly, despite knowing everything is fleeting." It's an artistic mission statement that refuses the comfort of permanence, and her latest single "Lonely Touch" serves as its most visceral embodiment yet.

"Lonely Touch" understands something fundamental about desire: It's most potent when shadowed by its own ending. Written after Kinsley watched a scene of lovers intertwining in Luca Guadagnino's "Queer," the track captures not just the electricity of contact but the ghost of absence that haunts it. The production mirrors this duality perfectly — lush, enveloping synths create warmth while maintaining an almost translucent quality, as if the sound itself could dissipate at any moment. There's space in the arrangement, deliberate pockets of silence that make you aware of what's missing even as Kinsley's vocals fill the frame.

The drums enter with restraint, a heartbeat that grounds the ethereal elements without overpowering them. Everything in the sonic landscape serves the central paradox: touch that somehow intensifies loneliness rather than erasing it. When the chorus swells, it doesn't explode into catharsis but rather expands like a slow exhale, holding tension even in its release. The reverb on Kinsley's voice creates distance within intimacy, making her sound simultaneously close and unreachable.

Lyrically, Kinsley navigates the impossible task of articulating a feeling that exists between presence and absence. The verses build through sensory detail — the specific, bodily experience of wanting and being wanted — while the chorus abstracts into something more universal and elusive. She chooses her metaphors carefully, never settling for the obvious. The "lonely touch" itself becomes a contradiction that makes perfect sense: the way physical closeness can amplify emotional distance, or how the awareness of fleeting time can make every moment feel simultaneously precious and insufficient.

What makes the writing particularly effective is Kinsley's willingness to sit in ambiguity. She doesn't resolve the tension between longing and loss, doesn't offer comfort or conclusions. The vocal delivery reinforces this — there's yearning in her voice but also a kind of clear-eyed acceptance, a refusal to pretend that wanting something makes it permanent.

Everything converges in the song's final moments, where the production, lyrics and performance align to create something achingly coherent. This isn't just a song about longing — it's a song that enacts longing through its very construction. The way elements layer and then thin out, the way the melody circles back on itself without quite resolving, the way Kinsley's voice maintains its vulnerability while never breaking into desperation — it all serves the same emotional truth. "Lonely Touch" proves that you can examine impermanence without becoming detached from it, that you can feel deeply while knowing deeply that nothing stays.

Photo Credit: Florence Sullivan

As a preview of "Fleeting," "Lonely Touch" suggests Kinsley is entering a new phase of artistic maturity. Where "Escaper" established her as a compelling storyteller with sophisticated production instincts, this new work seems more willing to sit in discomfort, to explore the spaces between certainty and dissolution. The EP's title track "Fleeting" and the Paris Paloma duet "After All" (which explores how love cannot always save us) indicate a project unified by its willingness to examine what we lose and why we reach for things anyway.

For listeners who've felt the particular vertigo of holding onto something while watching it slip away — or who understand that the most intense experiences are often the most temporary — "Lonely Touch" will resonate beyond its runtime. Kinsley has crafted something rare: a song that doesn't just describe an emotional state but recreates it, making the listener feel the weight of impermanence in real time. As we await the full EP, this single stands as both a complete artistic statement and a compelling argument for why feeling deeply, despite everything, remains its own form of defiance.

You can listen to Sarah Kinsley’s "Lonely Touch" out now wherever you get your music and be sure to keep an eye out for "Fleeting" due out February 13th via Verve Forecast. Sarah Kinsley also hits the road this spring on tour so check out the tour dates below and be sure to catch her in a city near you.