Charlie Puth has a love he just can’t shake on his new single, “Light Switch.” The funky, uptempo track the singer has been teasing for months dropped on Thursday morning (Jan. 20) as the first taste of Charlie, his upcoming follow-up to 2018’s Grammy-nominated Voicenotes.
“You turn me on like a light switch/ When you’re movin’ your body around and around/ Now, I don’t wanna fight this/ You know how to just make me want/ You turn me on like a light switch/ When you’re movin’ your body around and around/ You got me in a tight grip,” he sings over a propulsive beat in a longing falsetto on the track he produced and co-wrote with longtime collaborators Jake Torrey and JKash.
Puth, 30, breaks down the frustration of trying to walk away and getting pulled right back every time on the bouncy track that features the familiar click of a light switch on the chorus. The singer also dropped the official video for the song, in which a paunchy, crying-in-his-bag-of-chips bearded Charlie drowns his sorrows in junk food and basic cable workout shows after a bad break-up. But then the instructor jumps off the screen and puts Charlie through a Rocky-like body transformation that includes jogging, Jazzercise and a wardrobe upgrade.
The Christian Breslauer-directed clip ends with Puth crooning the song to he ex while standing on her lawn in front of a giant neon “Sorry” sign in a bid to get her back, only to realize that chunky Charlie was actually her preferred type.
And while little is known about the album so far, Puth has been dropping nuggets about “Switch” on his social feeds for months, noting on Dec. 28 that in the three years since Voicenotes, his voice has changed for a very good reason.
“First thing you’ll notice is my voice sounds different because I had my nose fixed and tonsils out…I sound less…scratchy hahah,” he tweeted. He’s also posted a series of TikTok videos cued to the single’s instantly earworm refrain, with the official video for the track slated to drop at noon ET on Thurdsay.
Watch the “Light Switch” video and see some of Puth’s TikTok teases below.
