Mary Ann Alexander's New Single Lays Bare The Art Of Intimacy
This article explores 'Student of Love', the newly released single and music video by Mary Ann Alexander, which reframes love as a practice shaped by attention, humility, and care. Drawing from early-2000s R&B and her Malayali upbringing, the project treats intimacy as something learned over time and a process of growth amidst uncertainty.
In public culture, love is supposed to hit you like a truck. Suddenly, you’re obsessed with another person, moving through the world in a kind of trance. Love is something that 'happens' to you; like it’s meant to be instinctive and effortless. But the problem with this narrative is that it leaves no room for love as a practice. Any attempt to work at it, to sustain it with care and attention, is treated with suspicion. If it were real, the logic goes, there would be no effort involved at all.
For Mary Ann Alexander, love is not something you master. It is something you keep learning. That understanding sits at the centre of 'Student of Love', her newly released single and music video, which frames intimacy as an intentional process shaped by humility, curiosity, and care. The song is built around the idea of learning how to be with another person, how to grow into yourself, and how attention itself can be an act of love. That understanding shapes both the emotional tone of the track and the world around it. The singer approaches love as a continuous education where being loved also means being understood, and where growth happens alongside uncertainty. The idea extends beyond romance, touching selfhood, craft, and the discipline of paying attention.
Sonically, the Mary Ann was not focused on writing obvious hooks or high-impact moments for this track. The song emerged from a metaphor that felt instinctive to her: loving someone as the slow act of reading a book. The emphasis is on attention, patience, and taking time. That idea became the foundation of 'Student of Love' and aligns with the R&B she grew up listening to from the 1990s and early 2000s, music she associates with familiarity and honesty.
The project is also shaped by her experience of growing up brown, where expressions of affection are often subdued. She speaks about learning to love quietly, holding back softness, and second-guessing open displays of emotion. “Every brown kid knows what it feels like to grow up hiding,” she says, adding that she grew up wishing she saw more love expressed freely around her. Music became this space where she could be open up without having to explain herself. R&B, in particular, offered room for emotion and vulnerability, something she connects to her Malayali upbringing and its relationship with longing and romance.
Built on a beat sent remotely by producer ceebeaats, the song was built slowly, guided by a metaphor that treats loving someone like reading a book with care. There is no chase for maximal hooks or sharp turns. Instead, layered vocal stacks float over a rhythm inspired by early-2000s R&B, drawing from nostalgia. The long-distance collaboration between Mary Ann and ceebeaats, later cemented in London, lends the track a trust that mirrors its theme.
For the music video, the artist wanted the visuals to feel familiar while remaining specific to her identity. As a Malayali artist working within R&B, she wanted the visual world to feel inseparable from where she comes from. The video directed by Madhavan Krishnesh focuses on intimacy through movement, using dancers, physical closeness, and touch to convey emotional exchange. The styling, which blends fairy-core elements with Indian sensibilities, and the use of choreography were intentional choices. The director pitched the concept early on, and the singer connected with it immediately. With layered vocals over a Timbaland-inspired rhythm, fluid and dance-led visuals felt like a natural extension of the sound.
Mary Ann Alexander sees 'Student of Love' as a point of growth, “I’m still learning, still softening, still expanding,” she notes. She hopes the project signals that work like this is being made in India, and that Indian listeners, in particular, feel pride when they encounter it.
Follow Mary Ann Alexander here and watch the music video at the top of the page.
