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Nashville’s Melanie MacLaren continues her creative journey with the release of her single “Get it Back,” which is out today via ToneTree. (Watch lyric video above) With this song, Melanie has mastered the art of creating infectiously arranged melodies that cleverly mask the song’s dark subject matter.
“I wrote this song at a time when it was hard for me to be poetic, about things that are hard for me to see poetically,” Melanie told Atwood Magazine. “I think a lot of the time there’s this pressure for writers to derive a lesson out of grief and for artists to romanticize loss— but doing that doesn’t feel authentic to my voice. There’s a coarse beauty in reality and a resigned beauty in being blunt. And I wanted to celebrate that with a song that feels radiant and life-affirming in the face of unequivocally cataclysmic facts.”
“Get it Back” is from a body of work that was written coming out of a time in life marred by grief, illness, and the loss of family members. The songs on this project are an ode to seeing things as they are— without mythology, without manmade glory. “Get it Back” follows the release of “Heaven Is” which offered up a reality check on the afterlife, told through Melanie’s lyrical filter which has been described as “haunting yet humorous” and possessing a “sentimental cynicism” that “oozes with Gen-Z relatability.” This duality shines through in all aspects of her music— she’s a classic finger-style guitar who grew up playing classical but uses ambient beds and distorted traditional instruments to punctuate her compositions. Melanie is a realist at her core, with a gift for language that extracts beauty from even the darkest reality and a unique ability to blend a tongue-in-cheek sensibility with timeless style.
These new songs follow a very prolific period, including the release of her stunning debut EP Kill My Time in 2022. The EP was followed by a collaborative folk EP of duets called Tadpole Emporium with songwriter Lorkin O’Reilly (DUG). The two toured the project in the UK and Ireland with Alain McFadden of Ye Vagabonds, playing with artists such as Ciaran Lavery and Joshua Burnside. Melanie ushered in 2023 with the release of her second solo EP Tourist, which had songs featured on a multitude of editorial playlists, including the top tastemaker playlists such as Spotify’s Fresh Finds and Fresh Folk Finds. With the expansion of her sound that reaches beyond convention and effortlessly weaves the threads of past and present, her audience grew and her music has garnered over 2.5 million streams. The success of Tourist led to her first headlining US tour in the Northeast and Midwest at esteemed venues such as 3rd and Lindsley, The Basement, Mercury Lounge, Bowery Electric, The Middle East, and Raccoon Motel to name a few, playing with other up and coming songwriters like Baerd, Paul Moody, Torri Weidinger, June Henry, and Quinn Devlin. She spent time on the road supporting Jessica Lea Mayfield, and at the top of this year, Melanie was direct support for Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke) on his acoustic tour playing to sold-out audiences around the U.S.
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