To make your Mondays a little brighter, we’ll be bringing you one song or music video to check out, every week.
From the very first notes finger-picked on a guitar, Light Year takes us by the hand and leads the way to somewhere far away (a light year away maybe?). “There are times when / It feels right to / Run away, run away”, sings Adam Melchor. Head in the clouds, he is beautifully illuminated by sunshine, with a clear blue sky behind him and branches peeking in the shot. And it already feels like the perfect escape.
Filmed in a field in Nashville (where Lennon Stella, who joins the New Jersey singer on the track, is based), the song’s video is the visual equivalent of a breath of fresh air. As we watch both singers sit down, surrounded by lilies of the valley, and wander about in the greenness of it all, we find ourselves captivated by the beauty and simplicity of the things we miss. Here they are laying on the grass – like we wish we could, too! –, playing on a swing, or flying a kite. Directors Muriel Margaret and CeCe Dawson bring out the best of the scenery and the music, and create a place of peace time can’t catch. Even if the illusion only lasts 3 minutes and 8 seconds.
Previously an independent artist, Adam Melchor joined Warner Records back in February. He has put out a whole album since, The Lullaby Hotline, but it was made up of songs that already existed and that he had previously shared with fans via secret links on YouTube in 2020. Light Year is his real first release under the label. “When I signed my deal, Warner asked me what the first thing I wanted to do was now that I’m signed,” he recalls in an Instagram post, published on April 28th, the day the duet came out. “And the answer that blurted out of my big mouth was ‘sing a song with Lennon.’”
Both singer are also songwriters, but this one is all Melchor and Mark Johns. But Stella Lennon does bring her own touch to the country tune with the dreamiest vocals and harmonies, the pair proving that two soothing voices are better than one. “I sent her this song and the rest is truly such a dream.”
The end result feels a dream-like escapade. The location has a lot to do with it, but it would only be empty aesthetics without the life the team who worked on every bit and inch of the song and the video put into it.
