DEATH

I usually have titles picked out early on in the conceptual phase of an album before writing anything. This one was a must, and I just wasn’t getting it right anytime I tried writing it with other people. One day, I sat in the portal writing room alone and started singing melodies.

I heard a spirit with a completely different tone than mine repeat a melody I had sung out loud in the silence, and it sent a chill down my body. I was really scared at first, then continued on, using that moment as confirmation from the other side. I laid down the chords after hours of searching through Omnisphere for an instrument that would reverberate through my soul.

I added a simple drum loop in the chorus (that was later replaced by production from my favorite collaborator, CJ Baran, as well as live drums from Ilan Rubin of Nine Inch Nails – who also put drums down for a couple of other songs.) When I was done writing the song , that same day I played it for my best friend of 22 years, who is like my sister. She had just experienced multiple losses in her family. While she was listening on headphones, tears rolled from her eyes. The song ended, she looked at me, and said “that’s the one.”

~ Melanie Martinez

Launched as the first single and teaser for the new era to begin, this first chapter served multiple purposes for those who have been waiting for Melanie Martinez’s next move. A hiatus from the public eye caused a stir of anticipations, then seemingly suddenly, she is “back from the dead,” as stated in this track’s chorus.

Showcasing a fresh sound, this single is nothing short of miraculous with it’s layers of loops and catchy melodies that signify the first stage in life; birth, or “re-birth” in the cycle that repeats, life after life after life. And the song title, “DEATH,” further adds to that meaning, that in death there is a loop, and a repeat. A resurrection.

“DEATH” is joined by a cinematic companion video – directed, conceived, and costume designed by Martinez herself – which trended #1 on YouTube’s Trending “Top Music Videos” chart with over 8.1 million views in just one week following its official premiere viewed by a live audience exceeding 80K. In the video, we see the Crybaby as we knew her before be buried, but instead of remaining in the ground, she emerges anew.

VOID

This is the first song I fully produced on my own, also in the portal room. The first thing I put down was that bass guitar top line. It was an exact melody from a voice memo I had recorded a few days prior. The chorus melody and lyric came all at once from looping the bass line. I put down a simple programmed drum loop that was later replaced/mixed in with live drums by Rhys Hastings.

I remember screaming that chorus while crying, it felt like a weight I needed to get off of me. The weight of my anxiety, the weight of my brain, and it perfectly fit the second stage. A void. A dark place where you are left alone with your own thoughts for introspection, in order to find the light within yourself.

~ Melanie Martinez

Beginning with an array of strings, the song builds with a loop of Melanie’s voice, saying “in the void” until the beat drops, and the song shifts into an entirely different turn. A bass loop is unveiled as her voice contrasts with a honeyed melody in the first verse. And we are lurched into the place of isolated introspection and a place of self-hatred that many people in this generation can relate to. In the disgust of our former selves before we were in a place of growth and shift and change, but we are stuck looping on the same thoughts, the same memories, and the same rot that seems to only fester even more when we are alone with our thoughts.

“Someone tell me if this is hell,” Melanie nearly screams in the chorus. And in that moment we feel that ache and that longing and the anxiety at its fullest. We are tangled with her until she sings “gotta escape the void.” Only then do we sigh and take our first deep breath since the song’s beginning. The second verse breathes along with us, but the noise in our head builds again as the chorus builds. “Look at the mess I’ve done, there is nowhere to run…”

Melanie then makes an analogy of praying to a priest as she judges herself within the walls, kneeling on a metal grater. We suck in our breath between our teeth as if we feel that pain ourselves, trapped and judging ourselves, as well. The looping bass continues its steady rhythm, building the anxiety and the pressure until the song fades out of existence.

TUNNEL VISION

Wrote this song while in Hawaii in February 2021 with Kinetics & One Love. We were surrounded by coqui frogs singing to us, the sound of the rain hitting the roof, and pure connection. I wanted to make a song to describe the stage of moving through a tunnel of familiar hymns and imagery to ease the transition to the other side, while also writing something with multiple meanings that people can relate to in a more earthly way.

The song was leaked through a Dropbox hack the same year, and it took everything within me to not trash it. I couldn’t write a better tunnel song, so it stayed.

~ Melanie Martinez

The introduction of the track reverbs through the body in its sound. The inspiration from the world she was in at the time of writing the song is most evident here, as the swell of her voice feels much like a late summer night outside, bathing in the stars, hearing the frogs chirp their own harmonies and still sound like one connected being.

The song transitions to a heavier beat and plucking of strings. The instrumentals hum back to a simile of the scene Melanie paints in writing the song with a whirring complimentary beat. In the lyrics, there does appear to be several meanings. Upon first glance, it appears to showcase a story unraveling a person claiming their body as their own after the traumas its faced. It then points the finger at the accuser, who’s not looking at that person for anything more than something to claim as their own. “You can look, but don’t touch,” Melanie sings.

Another meaning uses much more subtle references, soft hums in the song’s melody, and the implication that this stage in the afterlife cannot be rushed through, even though chaos reigns and tries to still the soul in place. This track then transitions with a beat drop, and a pause. Melanie holds our hands and guides us through a connected space of familiar hums, and we are led to the next stage with more ease than before.

FAERIE SOIREE

There were many days I sat in the portal room wanting to create outside of my own perspective. I asked Jeff Levin (my A&R) to send me as many folders as possible of instrumental tracks created by different producers. After searching through the folders for awhile, there was one track labeled “Respect Vol 1” by this producer named Hoskins that struck me. It was an infectious drum groove over a guitar top line. I wrote the song very quickly. I kept dancing to it, being overtaken by fairy energy. It felt like the stage of homecoming. Connecting with my soul family. A spirited soiree between me and my fae guides.

~ Melanie Martinez

A clapping beat dances as a contrasting harmony of Melanie’s vocals warms the cool tones of the drums. The energy of the fae feels thick, indeed, when listening to this song. A cascade of sounds bathe the ears as we feel even closer to the stars than ever before. And halfway through the song, the beat takes a soft pause. Distorted vocals wash and take each listener in, to bathe in the energy and connect together as one.

There was an immediate visceral reaction I had to this track. Upon listening to the first notes for the first time, everything in my core shook as I was gripped by the song’s melody and the sudden shift it took halfway through. The pacing of the song as a whole felt natural, but not of this earth at the same time, and I was mesmerized from the first listen on…

LIGHT SHOWER

There’s this place in the afterlife people under hypnosis describe as a soul-cleansing or a shower of light. A place where gem-colored rays of light shine through every inch of your soul, cleansing your spirit of the trauma it had experienced during your last lifetime. Restoring you to your original vibration. I remember reading about this, sitting on the roof of my garage, imagining what it would feel like while the warmth of the sun was hitting me. A few weeks later, I sat in my bathtub with my guitar and stayed up all night writing a love song about this light, in order to create a layered meaning. This was also the first song I ever wrote for this album.

~ Melanie Martinez

This song transitions smoothly from the last, pulling the song’s conclusion as a sample of water rushing from a faucet fades in, louder than before. Guitar weaves through a tune of its own creation. Melanie then sings what appears at first to be a love song, but something about it feels far deeper, transcending meaning fully, and embracing the ambiguity of it. Instead, it leaves the feeling of a fresh rain, particularly after a drought, and the earth smells fresh and ripe for growth and life.

In particular, this song echoes a lot of Melanie’s earlier sounds as she performed acoustic covers on YouTube before her break into the industry. Her voice is displayed center stage as it’s own unique instrument; but refreshed, grown, and anew. Far more practiced and sure of its own sound.

SPIDER WEB

If I were to ever launch a conceptual/thematic songwriting class, this song would be a great reference point. The interconnectedness of us all that everyone under hypnosis feels, including myself when I was under, is what I wanted to write about. I wanted to spice it up a bit, so I found an opportunity to add double meaning for earthly resonance. So, “SPIDER WEB” is also written about social media’s chokehold on society.

“Feeding off our highs and lows and curious to see us struggle, no one can leave once they merge.” I wrote this one on my guitar in the portal room, recorded a voice memo of it and sent it to C.J. He created an incredible instrumental track for it that same day and even created the perfect drop using his own mouth sounds that gave it that extra spidery feel.

~ Melanie Martinez

Beginning with the pluck of stringed instruments, the layered meanings of this track feel as if more than two pulled together by strands in a web. While using lyrical imagery of spiders, bugs, and butterflies swirling as one and growing more connected through the entrapment of the web, Melanie hints at social media being the culprit for the entrancement, the spider as the predator feeding off every feeling, good and bad. And yet that hypnotic beat pulls the audience into another meaning, simply existing and different beings connecting as one.

A change in the wind and build instrumentally leads to a unique beat drop that echoes something you’d hear in an animation or a film. Its alternative tones repeat in an electrifying drum pattern as Melanie’s vocals lilt effortlessly through the rhythm. Classical strings make a reappearance before the next drop in the second chorus, transitioning the rhythm to give pause and highlight the lyrics: “Better off dead than stuck in a maze. The center may seem like a gift; once you arrive, it’ll strip you of your life and you’ll wish that you never did…” The second chorus drops as the beat cascades through the soundscape until Melanie takes another pause near the end of the track. “Big bite, they liquify the insides first then wrap them tight, securing their spot in the spider web. Up all night, bound to their addiction to it; lifeless eyes, they die in the pit of the spider web.”

EVIL

My favorite of the conflict songs! C.J laid down guitar and looped it, I paced around the pool and wrote the lyric and melody in around thirty minutes. Flowed really easily and effortlessly. I think it’s because I just had a mental turning point where I was finally able to articulate perfectly what I had dealt with in my last relationship. I wanted the lyrics to be the most savage and the most c*nty. Every time I wrote something I was like ‘no, it’s not mean enough.’ It’s about dealing with a narcissist who ironically calls you evil just because you’re able to see through their bullsh*t. I spent the entire day blowing out my vocals recording it. It was definitely the most challenging song to sing.

~ Melanie Martinez

For long time fans of Martinez’ craft, “EVIL” takes a pivotal shift similar to that of “NYMPHOLOGY”; an evolution of Crybaby from soft dark bubblegum pop with a dash of grit to a full force of nature. Although the track even hints toward the sonic and child-like instrumentals–the xylophone, sound effects of an egg cracking–the savagery of embracing the voice and power behind someone free to articulate and release their emotions into a beautiful sonically matured masterpiece, despite the “c*nty” lyric choice.

Through the track itself seems to be one you need to blast on your commutes, it also highlights her softer vocals, with the message behind the chorus clearly audible and not up for misinterpretation. As this track was written at a pivotal “light-bulb moment” of how to describe what she went through in being with a narcissist, the haunting melody in the softer second chorus sets the tone behind the message;

“If you bite my hand again
I will never feed you
You can call me evil
Take it to the grave if you want to play pretend
I won’t be mistreated
Took me way too long to put this to bed
Lovin’ you was lethal
Guess that makes me evil, evil.”

We can picture Melanie “hop, skip, and jumping” around her pool as the melody found her, can’t you?

WOMB  

I knew I wanted the album to end on the title “WOMB.” This was one of the earliest songs written in 2020. Had a session one day with Omer Fedi as a part of a week of sessions I had with different people. Omer started playing these guitar chords that were so beautiful, I asked him to play it on loop while I stared at the corner of the room quickly writing lyrics. C.J and I had Rhys come in and record live drums around two years later to complete it. This song was written from the perspective of entering a new lifetime. The feeling of nerves and excitement that arise when you’re about to forget everything you know about your true self as a soul in order to let your human experience on earth move your progression forward.

~ Melanie Martinez

Like “DEATH,” the song title itself creates its own loop. “WOMB” may be the last song on the album, but created to loop, this song may as well be the first. The beginning. The new beginning.