Today, Lady Wray shares the latest offering from her forthcoming new album with “Hard Times”. From its opening drum beats, Lady Wray’s new single beckons listeners to the dancefloor, with a triumphant, feel good anthem that collides contemporary R&B and classic soul with cheeky flashes of disco flair. Despite the dour foreshadowing of the song’s title, “Hard Times” is an uplifting statement of perseverance and holding on to one’s joy, a driving theme of Nicole’s new album Cover Girl, out September 26th via Big Crown Records.

Cover Girl elevates Wray’s artistry as the latest product of her decade-spanning partnership with Grammy Award winning producer Leon Michels (Clairo, Norah Jones, Freddie Gibbs). Together, Wray and Michels have crafted a joyful, revitalized vision of Wray’s sound, which draws from several of her formative musical influences, ‘60s and ‘70s-inspired soul and disco, ‘90s hip-hop and R&B, and gospel. Cover Girl also captures Wray turning the focus of her writing inward, looking back fondly on herself as a little girl as she’s grown as a mother in the years since 2022’s Piece of Me, living vivaciously with the same warmth she sees watching her daughter grow up.