It’s very easy to get lost in a relationship and forget yourself in the process. Loving yourself is just as important as loving others; Kimberly June’s latest single “LOVE MYSELF (Wish it was U)” advocates that if someone can’t love you more than you love yourself, then they’re just not worth it. This track will hit especially hard for those of you who have been in a relationship and felt like your partner wasn’t pulling their weight– you’d give, and they’d only take. Wrapped in indie pop and rock, KJ shows us that longing for a person (and the relationship that they formed with you) can simultaneously exist with you loving yourself enough to not put up with somebody that puts in half the effort into a partnership. And even if you don't relate, you can still take something away from the song’s central message to embrace and choose self-love.
“LOVE MYSELF (Wish it was U)” is one of those songs you can leave on loop and never get sick of. The beat is just that addictive; with its slow starts and gradual inclines, ultimately culminating in these delightfully powerful explosions of energy in the chorus, this track is brimming with measured passion. Like any good pop song, “LOVE MYSELF (Wish it was U)” has just the right amount of guitar and percussion, both balanced between KJ’s flowing vocals; every instrument has their place in the soundscape, and all come together to form one that uplifts the spirit. The lyrics do a similar thing. There’s a lot of lines that I really loved in this track, and it’s hard to choose just a few that I feel exemplify the anthemic self-love that KJ is championing. If I had to select one, though, it would be from the chorus: “I love the way I love myself”. Although the narrator afterwards laments on the fact that their (ex)partner does or did not love them the same way, I think it’s just as important to highlight the fact that self-love should come above a relationship. KJ has knocked it out of the park with “LOVE MYSELF (Wish it was U)”, creating a track that keeps both the grief of a lost relationship and self-assurance in the same hand while also having a supremely catchy soundscape.
Indie-folk singer-songwriter, performer, and producer Kimberly June (“KJ”) is making whimsical and witty music that puts raw life experiences at the forefront of her tracks. With her musical roots in Nashville and Hawaii, she has deep ties to both locations; it was in Nashville that she signed her first publishing deal at age twenty-two that thrust her into the music industry. She also spent eleven years in Hawaii opening for various artists such as G. Love, Donovan Frankenreiter, Nahko, Kimie, and Mike Love, as well as performing at Wanderlust Festival. Her debut single “Love and Be Loved” released in 2018, and her debut album “Just KJ” dropped in 2020. “LOVE MYSELF (Wish it was U)” is her first release of 2025. You should definitely drop KJ a follow and listen to the rest of her impressive discography if you liked the single!
Written By Alexa Leung
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