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Vanessa Carlton has released a stunning visual counterpart to her latest single, Animal, slated to be a part of her new album, Veils. In November 2025, longtime fans were surprised when there was an audio version of the song, haunting yet introspective in nature. Carlton has spoken about being hunted, unsurprising, given her rather public life as an actress, pianist, vocalist. At the same time, the song is about acknowledging how there are certain things beyond our control and it’s best to just embrace them and let go, rather than let them overstress us out. She has also been active in stage plays. In 2019, Carlton made her Broadway debut through Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, portraying the lead role, who is also US-based singer-songwriter. Carlton tapped into her own experiences as a female singer in the music industry as well as a mother and her love life to make the titular character come to life and have a certain authenticity and depth to it. She played the role for 10 weeks, showing her vulnerability.

Animal forces the listener to ask thought-provoking questions. Do you identify with the animal, for instance? Who’s the animal?

While this feels like a Christmas treat for fans, it is more a signal about her tour dates in the UK and the US, as well as the release of her new album in 2026.

Noticeably, the music video shows darker colours to match the tone of the subject matter as well as the haunting sound, which is quite a departure from her previous upbeat work.