Fall is a time of juxtapositions — weather fluctuates from hot to cold and the beauty of red and gold changing leaves contrasts starkly with the bleakness of trees with fallen leaves. On her new fall-weather-approved single “Hide & Seek,” South London-based singer-songwriter Etta Marcus juxtaposes cute with creepy. Etta has only released this one song on streaming platforms, but if you simply stumbled upon it naturally, you wouldn’t be crazy for thinking it sounds like it could have been on the new Lucy Dacus or Japanese Breakfast records.

“Hide & Seek” opens up with lush, distant vocal harmonies that swell towards you, before swiftly falling into the main sound of the rest of the track. The first time I heard the main chords making up this song, I literally stopped, said “oh my god,” in a somewhat cartoonish voice, and repeatedly listened to the first minute of the song for approximately ten minutes. The song feels warm like you’re wrapped in a warm blanket of guitars, and the gentle percussion is rhythmic raindrops falling on the window. Muted horn lines surround the mix like birds soaring throughout the sky, and the shimmering synth harmony twinkles like the stars in the sky.

At the same time, there is a sense of uneasiness and melancholy that emanates from a deeper place in the song's heart. It can certainly be felt in the instrumentation, but this darkness really comes from Etta and her playful, yet creepy lyrics throughout the track. She describes a never-ending game of hide & seek, from the perspective of the seeker, and she cleverly uses language that can be both romantic and stalkerish. Upon my first few listens, I didn’t even realize it was a song about the game because the imagery and metaphors she uses are what you might expect from a soft indie rock song about a relationship. Lines like, “Face down in the gutter, I should stay here forever,” might sound like someone describing sadness, but with the way the song plays out, it ends up being a literal visualization of a hiding spot.

If new indie bops are what you seek, don’t let Etta Marcus stay hidden for long.