Your Face (song)

"Your Face"
Single by Wisp
from the EP Pandora
ReleasedApril 4, 2023
Length3:47
Label
SongwriterNatalie R. Lu
ProducerGrayskies
Wisp singles chronology
"Your Face"
(2023) 		"Tangled Dreams"
(2023)
Original cover
Artwork prior to Wisp's signing to Interscope Records
Music video
"Your Face" on YouTube

"Your Face" is a song by the American musician Wisp. It was released on April 4, 2023 through Music Soup and Interscope Records as the lead single from her debut extended play (EP), Pandora (2024). The song was written by Wisp, while production was handled by Grayskies. Natalie Lu later went under the moniker, Wisp, and shifted to making music. Inspired by Whirr, Wisp sang over Grayskies' beat. The song gained traction on social media platforms.

Classified as a shoegaze song, "Your Face" is driven by a "metallic luster" of "towering" guitars. Its lyrics are surrounded around a person that Wisp loved talking to. Following its release, the song went viral on TikTok, which led to Wisp signing to Interscope Records. The track was later included in her debut extended play (EP) Pandora (2024). A music video directed by Nick Vernet and Boni Mata premiered in November 2023.

Background and composition

Natalie R. Lu a.k.a. Wisp wrote "Your Face" while singing over a beat by the independent producer Grayskies,[1] that was found on BeatStars.[2] In a publication by Complex, Wisp described how her long-standing love for listening to music led to her becoming an "active participant" when she recorded "Your Face".[3] "Your Face" is 3 minutes and 47 seconds long. The lyrics of "Your Face" see Wisp singing about someone she liked and situations that may restrain that love.[1] Steffanee Wang writing for Nylon described the song as "a banging guitar line and crashing waves of drums and vocals". Wisp exclaimed that she was interested in making music that people would empathize with.[4] In an interview with Nylon, Lu stated that while she wishes to keep the true meaning of the song a secret, she "wrote [it] about someone [she] enjoyed talking to" and that it was about "circumstances that hold you back from expressing your love".[1] "Your Face" has been described as shoegaze,[1] nu gaze,[5] and alternative rock.[3] In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Wisp stated: "One of my main concerns when ‘Your Face’ came out was wanting to make music that people could relate to".[4]

Release and promotion

In an interview with Adam Davidson of Flood Magazine, Lu explained that she composed the song for enjoyment, "When I wrote “Your Face,” it was honestly just for fun. I was in college at the time and I didn’t have any intention of pursuing music, even though I loved playing my instruments."[6] Also speaking about how she promoted the song, "One night when I was scrolling TikTok, I saw that Juggler—another band that’s based in LA—had posted a carousel with their song, and I’d never seen people promote music on TikTok like this."[6] "Your Face" was released on April 4, 2023 through Music Soup and Interscope Records.

Critical reception

Writing for Complex, Olive Soki-Kavwahirehi wrote that the song "exemplifies all of the winning properties" of shoegaze, and that it "indicate[s] a very promising future for the young artist".[3] Andy Von Pip of Under the Radar called it "a low-key rock song of the summer".[7] While Jonah Krueger of Consequence said the song taps into a fuzzy [feeling] comparable to the gazing itch of a pedal board.[8]

Commercial performance

"Your Face" went viral on TikTok,[4][9] and sits at over 86 million streams on Spotify as of November 2024.[4] It peaked at number 8 on Billboard's Hot Hard Rock Songs chart in 2023,[10] marking Wisp's first top 10 entry. The song later culminated at number 7 on the aforementioned chart during the week of March 9, 2024.[11] In the months following its release, Wisp gained a cult following, which led to her signing to Interscope Records.[4][12] In 2025, it was certified gold by the Brazilian Association of Record Producers (ABPD).[13]

Music video

The official music video for "Your Face" was released on November 21, 2023.[1] It was directed by Boni Mata and Nick Vernet. The video takes place underwater.[4] Steffanee Wang of Nylon, wrote "includes no faces, just bodies swimming and gliding among swaying seaweed" with "interspersed shots of a figure with a sheet draped over its face".[1] Wang also commented "The closest we get to maybe seeing the artist are interspersed shots of a figure with a sheet draped over its face. The intense obscurity even bleeds into the video’s end credits, where all the names are smudged out."[1]

Credits and personnel

  • Wisp – vocals, songwriting
  • Grayskies – programming, production

Charts

Certifications

Certifications for "Your Face"
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[13] Gold 20,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wang, Steffanee (November 21, 2023). "Who Is Wisp, The 19-Year-Old Making Top-Notch Shoegaze?". Nylon. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  2. ^ Firth, Abigail (January 16, 2025). "Hype List 2025: Wisp is reinvigorating shoegaze for a new generation". Dork. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Gardner, Alex; Moore, Jacob; Adorney, Sabine; Ong, Patrick; Soki-Kavwahirehi, Olive (September 27, 2023). "Best New Artists". Complex. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Brown, August (November 15, 2024). "Shoegaze rocker Wisp is Gen Z's ambassador for the opaque and brutal—even at rap festivals". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
  5. ^ Ewens, Hannah (January 21, 2025). "Wisp: The new face of nü gaze". Alternative Press. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
  6. ^ a b Davidson, Adam (July 31, 2025). "Wisp on Bringing Her Musical Fantasy World to Life". Flood Magazine. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
  7. ^ Pip, Andy Von (October 31, 2023). "Wisp Releases 'Once then we'll be free'". Under the Radar. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  8. ^ Krueger, Jonah (March 28, 2024). "CoSign: Wisp Is the Next Leader of the Shoegaze Revival". Consequence. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
  9. ^ Rincon, Alessandra. "Wisp's 'Pandora' Is a Vulnerable, Lush, and Necessary Addition to Shoegaze". Ones to Watch. Retrieved March 8, 2025.
  10. ^ "Hot Hard Rock Songs". Billboard. December 16, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  11. ^ a b "Hot Hard Rock Songs". Billboard. March 9, 2024. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
  12. ^ Enis, Eli (December 18, 2023). "TikTok Has Made Shoegaze Bigger Than Ever". Stereogum. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
  13. ^ a b "Brazilian single certifications – Wisp – Your Face" (in Portuguese). Pro-Música Brasil. Retrieved June 3, 2025.
  14. ^ "Hot Hard Rock Songs Year-End". Billboard. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
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