For most of us – I’m pretty sure all of us – 2020 has been pretty horrific. So what better way to attempt to ease our souls than listening to a song about “letting go and moving into something fearless”. Sara-Danielle’s latest track, “Scared,” tells us to do just this. “The song talks about being scared but also wanting to let go and fall into the unknown,” she described. This seems apt, considering “Scared” marks her first new music since 2019’s EP Healing.

Taking elements from her signature style – “ginger ale pop” in her own words – and adopting a new, more soft and organic sound, “Scared” truly takes the opposite line on the meaning of the word; it sounds like an artist unafraid to experiment and switch gears with their own music.

Teaming up with Jesse Mac Cormack, who has already worked for the likes of Helena Deland, “Scared” has a melancholic yet purifying lilt to it. With sparsely strummed guitars and laid back drums driving the track, Sara-Danielle leads us on a confident yet relaxing journey into a new era for her music.

Accompanying the track is a visual directed by Sandrine Cadieux, which follows Sara-Danielle roller skating around her city in a near dream like fashion. With hazy shots of the artist interwoven alongside stunning scenery, the cinematic video emulates a trance-like mood. The movement of Sara-Danielle’s skates gives the video a real kinetic energy, one that guides the listener both into the haze of “Scared” and around the city streets with her.

Montreal-based artist Sara-Danielle builds upon her collection of ambient electro-pop showcased on debut album Live in my Dreams. Following up on “Flawless,” she has now unveiled “Waterfall,” the second single taken from her forthcoming second album.

On “Waterfall,” Sara-Danielle set out to encapsulate “the duality that we all have in our lives – some bad, some good, in the end, it’s all there and it’s beautiful.” This is charted in a dreamy manner, with her frank lyrics “Our love is like a Waterfall/Falling, dripping, but never-ending” hitting the sweet spot between sombre introspection and cautious optimism that occurs in long term relationships.

The myriad of emotions and the turbulent feelings that arise whilst navigating a relationship are gorgeously explored over the top of gently plucked guitar scales, twirling synths and unwavering electronic drums that evoke the very nature of running water.

As a track, “Waterfall” has a swelling nature, a steady building rhythm that mirrors the power of great expanses of water. By the time the crescendo hits with the last minute of the track, it has the effect of a dam bursting, a great spilling over of emotion completed by the introduction of a subtle horns section.

Yet the song never descends into chaos, each element is drawn together to harmonious effect and kept perfectly in check by Sara-Danielle’s shimmeringly clear voice acting as a conductor, controlling the flow of the track and seemingly water itself. Listen below.

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