Our Rating 10/10

Some songs arrive loudly, demanding attention. Others move differently. “Intimacy” doesn’t push its way in. It draws you closer, slowly, until you realise you’ve stepped into something far more exposed than expected.

This is Loah working with intent and control. The production is stripped back but deliberate, built around space rather than density. Nothing feels overworked. Every element is placed with care, allowing her voice to sit fully at the centre. And it carries the track with ease. There’s softness there, but it isn’t fragile. It holds weight, moving between restraint and release without ever tipping into excess.

What grounds the track emotionally is its origin. “Intimacy” was co-written with the late Eoin French, a collaborator Loah described as both a close friend and an extraordinary artist. That presence sits quietly within the song. Not in a way that is signposted or sentimental, but in something more subtle. A sense of continuation. Of work that still moves, even in absence. She has spoken about the surreal feeling of still receiving “fresh hits of beautiful sounds” from him, and that idea of connection beyond the immediate is felt throughout.

Sonically, this is Loah at her most distilled. The arrangement resists the pull towards scale or drama. Instead, it leans into small shifts, tonal and emotional, that land harder because they’re not overstated. It trusts the listener to stay with it.

The track also marks the first release from her debut album Materia Medica, a body of work shaped over several years. The title itself is drawn from ancient pharmacology texts centred on healing plants, which Loah has framed as a reflection of both music’s restorative capacity and her own journey through creative and healing practices. That context matters. “Intimacy” doesn’t sit in isolation. It feels like an entry point into something more expansive and considered.

Lyrically, it avoids easy definitions. Intimacy here is not presented as comfort or certainty. It’s something more exposed than that. A space where closeness and vulnerability sit side by side, without resolution. That refusal to tidy things up is part of what gives the track its strength.

What Loah continues to do, and what this single reinforces, is hold a space that doesn’t collapse into genre. There are threads of Irish musicality, soul, and something more atmospheric running through it, but it never settles. It moves between them, fluidly, without asking permission.

In a wider industry context, where speed and immediacy often dictate output, “Intimacy” takes a different route. It slows everything down. It asks for attention rather than chasing it.

And crucially, it earns that attention.

Verdict:
“Intimacy” is a controlled, quietly powerful release shaped by care, memory, and restraint. A track that lingers, not because it demands to, but because it leaves something unresolved behind.

Photo by Susannah

Intimacy is the lead single from her debut album Materia Medica, due June 5, 2026