Smitten Like That

[STYLE — NEO-SOUL × AMBIENT SHOEGAZE × AFROBEAT × SUBTLE BOLERO PERCUSSION] [88–92 BPM / FEMALE VOCAL / CLOSE-MIC / BREATHY / MATURE / INTIMATE] [INTRO — FREE-TIME / FLOATING / RHODES + DISTANT SHOEGAZE GUITAR] [Very soft vocal. Let the words hover before the groove fully enters. Airy pads, faint reverse guitar, almost no percussion.] Feeling you… feeling you… Mmm… Yeah… Smitten like that. [VERSE 1 — LOW NEO-SOUL POCKET / MINIMAL AFROBEAT GROOVE] [Warm Rhodes enters. Soft rounded bass underneath. Gentle kick and rim percussion. Vocal stays conversational and close.] When I said gimme the simple things, I meant— Let’s smoke… high enough to feel your chest rise under mine… [Small suspended pause] let the whole room disappear. Lay on each other’s chest until tomorrow gets here. Let’s build forts with sheets, hide away from the world. No plans, no phones, just me being your girl. [Bolero bongos begin very subtly underneath.] Leave your hoodie on the floor, leave your smoke in my hair. Make ordinary nights feel unfairly rare. [PRE-CHORUS — MELODY LIFTS / GUITARS BEGIN TO BLOOM] [Open the chords slightly. Add delicate congas and brushed bolero percussion. Let the shoegaze guitar swell behind each short phrase.] Ruin the next one for me… [Pause] Just love me. Make songs for me. Kiss me like you missed me even when you saw me yesterday. Do the little things in that dangerous kind of way. [HOOK — WEIGHTLESS / SOFT AFRO-SOUL SWAY] [Full groove arrives without getting loud. Deep bass pulse, restrained Afrobeat drums, dreamy guitar wash. Vocal becomes more melodic but never belted.] Feeling you… feeling you… I don’t need much, just everything soft with you. Your chest, your hands, your late-night point of view. Nothing complicated… [Let instruments breathe.] Yeah… Smitten like that. [VERSE 2 — WARMER / SLIGHTLY MORE SENSUAL] [Drop some of the guitar wall. Bring the bass and hand percussion forward. Vocal should feel like she is smiling into the mic.] Lay with me, babe, let’s watch the stars. Then after… [Brief stop in percussion.] let’s head to the backseat of the car. [Beat returns softly.] Fog up the windows, lose track of where we are. Maybe taking “simple” a little too far. Come home with me, kick your shoes by the door. Tell me one more story I’ve already heard before. Fall asleep mid-sentence, your hand resting on my waist. Wake up tangled together with last night on our face. [PRE-CHORUS — DREAMIER / MORE EMOTIONAL] [Bolero percussion becomes slightly more noticeable. Add a faint guitar tremolo behind the vocal.] Ruin the next one for me… Just love me. Make songs for me. Kiss me like you missed me even when you saw me yesterday. Make me wonder how anybody after you could ever feel the same. [SENSUAL BREAK — HAZY / HALF-TIME / ALMOST WEIGHTLESS] [Drums thin out dramatically. Keep only bass heartbeat, soft bongos, Rhodes and huge ambient guitar tails. Vocal extremely close and breathy.] Ohhh, the heat of wanting you… Feels like steam from the shower— warm, moist, impossible to get out of. [Long guitar bloom.] Clinging to my skin, making everything hazy. Let me melt onto you… like ice over a candle. Slow enough to feel it, warm enough to lose my shape. [Whispered harmony underneath.] Smitten looks good on me when it’s you provoking it… Mmm… Keep provoking it. [BRIDGE — DREAMY / ALMOST SPOKEN / BOLERO HEARTBEAT] [Strip it back to brushed bolero percussion, Rhodes and a low bass pulse. Let the guitar slowly bloom around the last lines.] I said simple… I never said small. I want the kind of quiet that gets under my skin. Where nothing’s happening… but somehow everything is. Your eyes getting heavy, my guard coming down. No grand declarations— just don’t make me want this much if you’re not staying around. [Small suspended pause.] Mmm… Maybe that’s the trouble. You make forever sound casual. [OUTRO — WHISPERED / NO FINAL CHORUS] [Do not return to the full hook. Strip the production down piece by piece. Rhodes, distant guitar wash, soft percussion fading into room noise.] Let’s smoke… Let’s stay up. Kiss me like you missed me. Make a song about us. Mmm… Smitten looks good on me when it’s you provoking it… [Percussion disappears.] Feeling you… Feeling you… [Last chord hangs in reverb.] Smitten like that.