Claire Rousay and Zander Raymond find beauty in the in-between on new single: “can’t we have both”
Experimental pop rarely feels this lived-in. On “can’t we have both,” Los Angeles sound artist Claire Rousay joins Chicago’s Zander Raymond to find something quietly moving in the clutter of everyday life. Built through a long-distance exchange of recordings, their collaboration turns domestic noise, delicate electronics and half-formed ideas into something that feels both intimate and strangely expansive.
The single is one of only two vocal tracks on their forthcoming album, something good. Rousay’s understated voice floats through shifting textures as the lyrics pick apart the strange lifecycle of trends, from disappearing cultural obsessions to the uncomfortable question of where an artist belongs when everything keeps moving.
What makes “can’t we have both” so compelling is that it never settles into one shape. There’s a song here, certainly, but also a collage of rooms, memories, and fleeting sounds. The result is beautifully unresolved: experimental without feeling distant. Vulnerable without making a spectacle of itself.
Claire Rousay x Zander Raymond – can’t we have both
