Swedish multidisciplinary alt-pop artist RIVER enters the uneasy space between ecstasy and paranoia on her atmospheric new single, Change.
Released through Bushido, a division of Pub Crawl Recordings, the track offers another glimpse into her debut album, A Dying Source, arriving November 13, 2026.
Blending alt-pop with cinematic textures, Change explores control, confinement and the fallout of surrendering to destructive desire, continuing the narrative introduced by City of Thirst.
The song is about a dog trying to adapt to life on a leash, unable to stop defying its owner’s strict rules. The feeling of confinement and frustration is also deeply human.
The accompanying video continues the story of City of Thirst, using kitsch, surreal imagery to capture the claustrophobic crash after the high.
Change takes place within the same 24 hours as City of Thirst and captures the crash right after the high. We wanted to evoke the claustrophobia of me being trapped with myself as ecstasy turns into paranoia, with a subtle hint that something went too far.”
Inspired by her father’s vinyl collection, RIVER’s journey took her from Gothenburg to Mexico before she returned to Stockholm and launched the project.
The name plays on her surname, Sommarström, meaning “summer stream” in Swedish. It reflects her connection to nature, movement and survival—ideas that now flow through both her music and highly constructed visual world.
With Change, RIVER presents another tightly connected chapter from A Dying Source, using sound and image to trace what happens when freedom gives way to fixation.