Independent dark-pop provocateur Exzenya cracks open another psychological chamber with โUgly When You Love Me,โ a razor-edged electronic single released November 6, 2025. The track arrives steeped in the same emotional intelligence and behavioral-psychology undercurrent that defines her wider catalog, with two concept albums unfolding simultaneously, Story of My Life and Bar Scenes and Rumors. Pulling from decades of lived experience, academic training, and a global life that refuses to shrink into anyone elseโs narrative, Exzenya delivers a confrontation rather than a confession.
The production swirls in dark, cold layers, the music churning like an electrical storm that never quite breaks. A brooding electronic pulse underpins everything. Itโs sleek, deliberate, and danceable enough to come off dangerous. Synths slide and simmer, with percussion snapping like controlled lightning, and you can feel the tension coiling tighter with each verse. Exzenya sings in her eccentric high voice, her vibrato quivering with theatricality, as if every line is a boundary being drawn and redrawn. Itโs all incredibly precise โ no autotune, no artifice โ just unfiltered vocal control sharpened into something surgical. From what I can tell, the idiosyncratic vocal styling allows her to convey her frustrations and angst in a volatile, vacillating form.
Meanwhile, her lyrics hit like a mirror forced into someone elseโs hands. โWhen you touch me it really is disgustingโฆ Youโre so ugly when you love me,โ she spits with icy disgust, the revulsion palpable. Itโs just a methodical dismantling of manipulation and self-doubt. By the time she reaches the boiling point and her voice cracks into a growl, the transformation is complete: beauty has curdled into decay, affection into something predatory and pathetic.
Not to mention, the trackโs visual aesthetic is that of a bleeding, withering rose and a ghostlike face behind it. This suggests the musicโs anatomy perfectly, with beauty drained of charm, rot exposed, and truth unmasked.
In just a few days, โUgly When You Love Meโ has already picked up organic traction across platforms, praised for its vocal precision, its cinematic darkness, and its controlled fury. For fans of Banks, Sevdaliza, Caroline Polachek, and the more shadow-drenched corners of electronic pop, this track smolders, and stares back.
Listen to Exzenya showcase the grotesqueness of toxic relationships through โUgly When You Love Meโ on Spotify.
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Review by: Naomi Joan