Ilene’s latest single “EXACTLY!” isn’t just a song — it’s a full-on fever dream. A chaotic, glitter-splattered, mentally-spiraling ride through the beautiful mess of existing at 2AM when your skin is betraying you, your hormones are MIA, and your snack stash has become your best friend.
Written during one of those nights where everything feels too much — no sleep, bloated belly, brain on overdrive — Ilene channels all that energy into a house-inspired electro-pop banger that’s equal parts absurd and relatable. Think: a manic dance party in your bedroom meets underground rave meets sugar crash hallucination.
“EXACTLY!” captures the contradictions of being human in your 20s (or any age, really): you’re grown and sexy but also a hot mess. You’re confident and cool but also unraveling. You’re voguing in your head, but IRL, you’ve got toilet paper stuck to your shoe. The production is dizzying in the best way — pulsing beats, twisted synths, vocals flipping from breathy whispers to full-on breakdowns.
Ilene explains that she wanted the sound to match the chaos of those too-real nights where you spiral, binge shows, eat junk, and feel everything. “I hate it, but I love it,” she says of the creative rush that strikes right before sleep. And that duality is everywhere in the song: the glamour and the grit, the fantasy and the fatigue.
In a pop world obsessed with polish and perfection, “EXACTLY!” is a breath of bloated, acne-ridden, glorious fresh air. It’s a love letter to the girls, gays, and theys who dance through their madness in mismatched underwear and call it art. Finally, a messy-girl anthem we can all scream along to — zit patches, midnight snacks, and all.
