Emily Donohue - Melancholia (2018)

On Melancholia, Emily Donohue’s luminous, honeyed voice soars above a bed of ringing, spacious music that blurs the lines between unabashed pop and electro-tinged indie rock. Donohue moves through her music with an easy grace, lending the record an in-the-pocket feel that is eminently engaging. A collection of painterly vignettes, “Melancholia is the story of a young woman trying to find her place – and herself – in modern society”, explains Donohue.

While writing, Donohue was wracked with feelings of panic and isolation, yet when she sat at her piano to write she felt in control. Channeling that anxiety and fear – both personal and cultural - into her art, each song became a meditation. “These songs were the remedy for my own melancholia”, Donohue shares. “If this record helps even one person as much as it helped me to write it, then I've done something good.”