London based singer-songwriter Meló has debuted her first single, a youthful and carefree track titled ‘Counting Sheep.’
Developing complex and comprehensive harmonies, Meló has delivered an emphatic and raw track to mark the start of her music career. Based in North London, she began to use music as an emotional outlet, drawing influence from the storytelling aspects of the folk, acoustic and a cappella genres. The initial acoustic guitar is drawn in, sounding like the soundtrack to an emotional flashback sequence in a movie. It is slow and pacing, paired with rising strings and wholehearted lyrics. Despite their blunt nature, they draw on real experiences, of our perspectives of the world.
‘The world is still, yet I’m still in it / I’m scared of how lonely it gets.’
The repetitive rhetoric in the chorus questions why different aspects of her life have happened, through emphatic metaphor. The track is the first of several singles she hopes to release in 2021, to conceptualise issues that come with growing up too quickly. The carefree musical accompaniment to more serious lyrics turns gloomy personal experiences into a well-rounded and wholesome piece of art. Rising strings and the late addition of percussion turns ‘Counting Sheep’ into a brilliant and full single, clearly breathtaking to hear live.
‘I swear I’ll never fall asleep.’
‘Counting Sheep’ is a track that could easily fit into the setlist of artists like Daughter or Lucy Rose. Furthermore, whilst listening, you can imagine being at an intimate Sofar Sounds show at an independent venue like Paper Dress Vintage. For an independent singer-songwriter, this song is so impeccably fine-tuned and perfected, that it should be hailed as an example of what you can achieve by yourself.It brings you feelings of your body waking up in the spring, venturing out of the house and actually feeling the sun on your skin. However, on listening more carefully to the lyrics, you discover the raw and sobering reality that we can all relate to.
