Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
10NOK or more
about
For Malin Willén, songwriting isn’t just a hobby, but instead a place where she’s spent much of her life. From Västerås in central Sweden, her (very) early attempts at the craft may have stalled (“I did try to write a song for my best friend when I was a kid (maybe 8 or 9) but we really didn’t know how to do it so that didn’t happen”), but after learning how to play guitar, songwriting took up most of her teens. “It was really the only thing I did when I was a teenager”, she says. “I could often write a song in one day and then play it live a week later. I didn’t have as much self-awareness at that time, but I’m quite happy about doing those songs today”.
Now operating under the artist name WYLL, she specialises in big, bright pop songs with an emotional edge, and her new single ‘Better’ is a fine example of her work. Staring off slowly, WYLL delicately draws the listener into the song’s world, her voice airing out over bubbling synths, before ‘Better’ takes a flying leap into its firework of a chorus. For a young artist, the scale of the song is impressive – any early lack of self-confidence is long gone, and now she’s totally unafraid to write pop music blown up to epic, cinematic size.
Malin says: “I think I gathered all of the anger that I have felt for everyone in my life in this song. It’s my first song that I have ever written that has this kind of anger in it. ‘Better’ is about a friendship that has gone wrong, when you’ve been left behind. The song is the breaking point when you realize that you don’t need this in your life and you’re so much better without this. But it’s still about this friendship so there’s still some parts where you can recognize the grief and jealousy, because well, it’s always sad when a relationship comes and end”
lyrics
It’s like I’m giving up
everything I ever had
and it’s like I’m living up
to all those things we knew were bad
And it has come to this point
and now that I know
it’s better to be alone than to be with you
For you have broken all the promises
that we swore for all our time
and I thought you needed time for yourself
’cause it’s hurting me to give affection
’cause you’ve broken all the promises
that we swore for all our time
and I thought you needed time for yourself
It’s like you’re giving up
everything you ever had
and I am dreaming without you, sleeping without you
I am dreaming without you, living without you
And it has come to this point
and now that I know
it’s better to be alone than to be with you
For you have broken all the promises
that we swore for all our time
and I thought you needed time for yourself
’cause it’s hurting me to give affection
’cause you’ve broken all the promises
that we swore for all our time
and I thought you needed time for yourself
And I have never thought that this was better
but you have never tried to forget her
And I have never thought that this was better
but you have never tried to forget her
For you have broken all the promises
that we swore for all our time
and I thought you needed time for yourself
’cause it’s hurting me to give affection
’cause you’ve broken all the promises
that we swore for all our time
and I thought you needed time for yourself
And I am better without you
(I am dreaming without you, sleeping without you)
And I am better without you
(I am dreaming without you, living without you)
and I am better without you
(I am dreaming without you, sleeping without you)
and I am better without you
(I am dreaming without you, living without you)
credits
released September 27, 2019
Written by Malin Willén
New on the always-great label Velvet Blue Music is “Slow Parade” from Gileah Taylor, boasting warm songs built on piano and guitar. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 26, 2024
Delightfully unpredictable debut from a New York electronic producer and composer with backgrounds in psychedelic rock, jazz, and indie pop. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 25, 2024
Toronto rivals San Francisco as the North American capital of jangle pop as evidenced by this new record of sunny jams from the Motorists. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 16, 2024
Guitars sparkle like distant constellations on the latest from Scythe, who delivers dazzling space rock on their latest LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 3, 2024
