Strangers / Lovers is the debut studio album by Dagny, released through Little Daggers Records. The album is split into two parts: Side A and Side B. She released the first half on 22 May 2020, consisting of six tracks. The rest of the track list was released on 2 October 2020.
By the time Dagny dropped the promo and videos, the COVID-19 pandemic began. She was set on releasing the record though, and told Idolator, "It was never an option not to release the album". It was her guitarist and executive producer who noted that it sounded like "two sides of story" which made her decision to release it in two parts.[1] Side A is set in a specific order, which tells the progress of a relationship. She added, "Side A felt more like summer and going into a lighter season. Whilst Side B felt darker and more thoughtful like the autumn."[2]
She revealed that she had around "184 fully written songs" along with several drafts. She narrowed it down between fifteen favourite songs and realised that most of them connected to tell a story, which made the process easier. She described Side B as "bit bolder and more emotional" compared to Side A, the lyrics different.[3] One of the songs, "I Just Hope You're Okay", did not make it on the album.[4]
Title[]
She explained in an interview, "The whole overall concept was following the relationship from before and during, which is Side A, and then after, which is Side B. Strangers / Lovers came from this idea that you go from strangers to lovers to strangers again. I found that nice and brutal because you meet someone and then you don't know whether they'll be your closest person and fast forward a year maybe, they're the one you always call and share all your ups and downs with. Once the relationship is over, suddenly it's the most unnatural thing in the world to call them and you see them moving on with their life. Suddenly they're hanging out with people you don't know and they're doing things you don't know anything about. It's kinda nice to think that anyone you meet could be that person but then it's also brutal to think that once it's over, you go back to being strangers again. A lot of thoughts and things were made around that theme.[5]
