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Planningtorock and Romy revisit ‘The One’ with a tender new queer love song rewrite
Planningtorock and Romy rework The One, giving the 2011 track a warmer, more tender take on queer longing and love.
Planningtorock has returned to The One with Romy, turning a song first released in 2011 into something softer, warmer and even more exposed. The new version of the track, which appeared on Jam Rostron’s second album W, lands with a very different texture now, swapping out the original pizzicato strings for lush synths and Romy’s soulful vocal line.
Rostron, the Bolton-born, Tallinn-based electronic artist, first put the song out in 2011 on a record that NME described at the time as “a masterpiece of art-pop experimentalism”. More than a decade later, the song’s emotional centre remains intact, but the framing has shifted. What was once already a song about queer longing now feels recalibrated through collaboration, friendship and time.
Rostron said the song came from a particularly isolated period. “I wrote ‘The One’ back in 2009 when I was single and not yet able to live as my trans self,” they said. “I was so lonely back then and the possibility of being in love felt very far away. Romy’s rework of this song is so beautiful. She’s managed to take its original queer longing for love to another level of tenderness and hope and created something deeply moving.”
That exchange matters because Romy’s presence is not just a feature credit. She’s been close to Planningtorock for years, and the collaboration draws on a shared language that sits underneath both artists’ work. In her own statement, Romy said, “I’ve been a fan of Planningtorock for a long time and have so much admiration and respect for the music they make and the person they are. Over the years we have become close friends and I think there’s an unspoken understanding between us – not just as friends, but through our shared experiences as queer artists.”
She added that the track’s emotional pull was immediate. “Our connection and friendship made this feel extra special to work on. When I first heard the original track ‘The One’, I was struck by the emotion sitting just beneath the surface – that sense of longing that feels both personal and universal. I wanted to honour the emotion in the original, letting the heart of song breathe whilst taking it’s hand and bringing it into the dancefloor.”
The timing of the release also lands alongside a busy stretch for both artists. Planningtorock is due to play two UK shows performing Bronski Beat’s 1984 queer landmark The Age Of Consent with Tom Rasmussen and Bishi, at Manchester’s Aviva Studios on May 17 and London’s Royal Festival Hall on May 24. Tickets are available here.
Romy, meanwhile, has been part of The xx’s first live activity since 2018. Their return show took place in Mexico City on April 3, before the band played Coachella for the first time in nine years. The group had already been spotted in the studio together last March, following Jamie xx saying in 2024 that they were “having a good time” working on new material. After the Coachella line-up announcement in September last year, they also shared rehearsal footage.
Asked about new music from The xx at the BRIT Awards 2024, Romy kept the details vague but clearly open-ended: “We’re just keeping it really open, and we’re up for trying new things, but it sounds like us. That’s all I can say right now.”
