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Nashville-based artist Melani MacLaren released her EP Bloodlust today via Tonetree and celebrated the release last night at the Basement in Nashville.
The songs on Bloodlust came from a period in Melanie’s life marred by grief, loss, and illness. The project is an ode to seeing things as they are – without mythology or artificial glory. Not one to shy away from life’s paradoxes and dualities of life, this project is Melanie’s most high-spirited anthemic music to date. The songs draw deeply from 90’s country influences with hints of Lucinda Williams, Silver Jews, and Gillian Welch, all while staying true to her instinct for flipping conventions of the genre and subject matter on their head. Melanie’s lyrics have 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 classical finger-style guitar who grew up playing classical but uses ambient beds and distorted traditional instruments to punctuate her compositions. At her core, Melanie is a realist 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.
Leading into the release, Melanie released three singles, the most recent of which “Laika” which was inspired by the Soviet Space dog put into orbit on Sputnik 2, a story Melanie came across on TikTok. There was no way to leave orbit on the mission, so the trip was a death sentence for the animal. The disregard for life disgusted her and sent her on a rabbit hole of thoughts on man’s inhumanity towards man and the exploitation of the vulnerable. Although this is a quiet and gentle song, she was angry and disgusted when she wrote it. Indy Review, who spoke with Melanie about the song, said, “The beauty and melancholy of this stripped-down, finger-picked acoustic track was undeniable.”
Prior to “Laika” Melanie released “Get It Back,” a song that showcases Melanie’s mastery of creating infectiously arranged melodies that cleverly mask the song’s dark subject matter, that Atwood Magazine said was “A soul-stirring folk song born of grief, love, loss.” The first single from the EP, “Heaven Is,” was the perfect introduction to the EP. This stunning song offers up a reality check on the afterlife that Up to Hear Music called “a deep, folksy dive into existentialism with a nostalgic, summery vibe.”
Bloodlust is the follow-up to Melanie’s 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, which reaches beyond convention and effortlessly weaves the threads of past and present, her audience grew, and her music 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 Caleb Caudle, and at the top of this year, Melanie was direct support for Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke) on his acoustic tour.
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