Julia Michaels has released her new EP, Inner Monologue, Pt. 1, a day before of its scheduled January 25th release. The new six-song collection marks Michaels first release since her 2017 EP, Nervous System, and boasts collaborations with Selena Gomez and Niall Horan.
Michaels debuted her collaboration with Gomez, Anxiety, on Zane Lowes Beats 1 radio show. The track is centered around a plucky acoustic guitar part that settles into a slick pop groove. Both Michaels and Gomez offer endearingly frank verses about grappling with depression and social anxiety, though their lyrics are also tinged with a bit of self-deprecating humor: Feel like Im always apologizing for feeling, they sing, Like Im out of my mind when Im doing just fine/And my exes all say that Im hard to deal with/And I admit it, yeah.
Michaelsdiscussed the song with Lowe as well, and explained why she wanted Gomez to join her on it. I was like, I think itd be really awesome to have a song with two women on it that struggle with the same thing, that are talking about something other than two women fighting for a guys attention,' Michaels said. Or something like that. Its almost like a female empowerment song without it being a female empowerment song.
Michaels is set to embark on a North American tour this spring that will include a mix of solo headlining dates and shows supporting Pink. The trek kicks off March 1st with a concert alongside Pink in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, while Michaels first solo show is March 4th in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.