Rising to become the new queen of darkness, Raven Numan takes an intriguing detour with her new single ‘Just A Number’.

While ‘Just A Number’ is largely shorn of the industrial and dark-pop embellishments that made her previous singles so compelling, it’s a song that unmasks its intensity in a markedly different way. Mournful cello and unguarded piano prove to be the dominant textures in a song which uses its streamlined space to expose the horror of its emotions. Raven’s voice is as beautifully beguiling as ever, but her words capture the desolation of giving everything of yourself to someone… and the tragedy of receiving almost nothing in return.

Raven says, “‘Just A Number’ is about a really tumultuous relationship along with the feeling of being objectified. It’s been a work in progress for about three years and chronicles a lot of the negative aspects and feelings that were brought up by careless and hurtful things I heard from my partner at the time. The line ‘that bitch will never be me’ is drawn from everything I found out about him and the girls he was seeing while we were together. I settled on the title from feeling that I was just a number to someone that neglected almost everything from the relationship aside from sex. I felt as if I meant nothing more than ‘Just A Number’.”