Dailyy/Crazy Out Of love

Meron T touches down with two new singles ‘Dailyy’ and ‘Crazy out of Love’ exploring the mercurial experience of transitioning out of a romantic relationship into platonic love. Sometimes through these emotional difficulties in adjusting to these new grounds, friendship can’t always be a painless option.

In two freestyles put down at the time when these feelings were most raw to her, Meron T journeys from holding onto someone tight through to self-acceptance. ‘Crazy out of Love’ shows her reminding herself, ‘I can’t feel sorry for myself, know I will heal / I just need myself to love, self to love, that’s enough’. Over both tracks, she flows between a low melisma before shifting into these great spoken asides that seem to represent inner-monologue. Both songs were a big part of her healing, ‘giving me not only a release but also strength and perspective to deal with my heartbreak’.

Regret at crossing certain boundaries permeates both songs, in ‘Dailyy’ she sings, ‘I know we shouldn’t have been but that’s just the way’. Lessons learnt are emphasises in ‘Crazy out of Love’, as Meron T grapples with self-awareness, ‘look in the mirror, do you see me (projecting on everybody)’. Speaking to Meron T on her perspective on love transitioning into something platonic, she said:

I believe a platonic love can exist if the boundaries in place are respected by both people, and this is easier done when those boundary lines haven’t already been crossed. And when sex is an important aspect of your relationship that you both enjoy, trying to control your impulses and the attraction you may still feel towards that person can be excruciatingly difficult.

Both songs linger on that memory of knowing what has passed between two ‘up all night’ and not wanting to stop even though you know that those boundaries have been built in for a reason. Flashing memories and all.

Produced by Sey G, both tracks play with whisper and soulful progressions, underneath all of this are some Drill-inflected 808s that work so well with Meron T’s sultry vocals. Her distinctive sound just fits a big bass line. Last year she worked with East London producer Darkness on track ‘Love Your Life’, upping the tempo from her previous releases. Her comfort on beats like this indicates her potential as a producer too, something that she is working towards. As well as the clear Aaliyah similarities, you can hear her Ethiopian/ Eritrean heritage in her vocals too, beautifully modal yet honey wine in tone: reminiscent of ‘70s divas like Bezunesh Bekele.

Something that songs on this topic don’t often touch on is the contradictory element of our feelings. In ‘Dailyy’, the fading out of romantic feeling is drawn on, raising the issue of realising love as a phase when you so deeply believed in it before –

No pretending cause I know when I see your face that I didn’t love you it was just a phase’. We are invited to question the difference between infatuation and love, as the lines before ‘you and me were stuck inside my head

remain just as true.