A tender, dreamy surrender, Malena Zavala’s “MELT” captures the sacred stillness of intimacy and the quiet ecstasy of falling in love.
Stream: “MELT” – Malena Zavala
There’s something sacred about the first “I love you.”
Something so soft and so seismic, it splits time in two. Before it, the world hums with what-ifs and almosts. After it, you’re changed.
Malena Zavala captures that magical moment in all its fragile glory with “MELT,” a dreamy, intoxicating haze of love, longing, and emotional surrender. It’s the sound of a heart set free – of a soul leaping with eyes wide shut into the warm unknown. Lilting, intimate, and utterly enchanting, “MELT” plays like a holy memory: A soft confessional whispered between dusk and dawn, held close like a secret you never want to lose. It’s butterflies in your stomach. It’s hope, reignited.
I found you one day in delight
A moment of quiet surprise
Oh man did it feel so right
As if we had known all our lives
Together we searched for the stars
And travelled across the whole world
Each day learning more than the last
Had we known each other in the past?
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “MELT,” the gently stunning lead single and title track off Malena Zavala’s upcoming EP, MELT. Out later this year via her own label Paraná Records, MELT promises a tender, heart-forward collection of love songs steeped in the Argentine-born, London and Mexico City-based artist’s signature blend of Latin warmth, psychedelic soul, and dreamy indie pop.
I found you one day in delight, a moment of quiet surprise / Oh man did it feel so right, as if we had known all our lives…
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Following 2023’s Pasos De La Luna EP and her critically acclaimed albums Aliso (2018) and La Yarará (2020), MELT marks a new chapter of self-expression and emotional vulnerability for Zavala – and the start of something deeply special.
“‘MELT’ [the song] was written and recorded first in my bedroom in England after coming home from visiting Mexico City for the first time,” Zavala tells Atwood Magazine. “It was the beginnings of a blossoming romance, and we lived in different continents. I’d never had Mexico City in mind to visit or ever go live there, yet it became the backdrop to very special moments for me. After a long dimly lit evening hanging out in bed, talking and playing guitar, time was still and it felt like eternity. That’s when the first confessions of love surfaced. It was like jumping off a cliff and not caring where you would land because it felt right and it felt safe to take such a risk. It felt like the world outside had gone away and we had melted into one.”
That sense of intimacy radiates throughout “MELT,” from its hushed acoustic guitar strums and airy vocals to Zavala’s quiet lyrical confessions:
You told me you loved me that night
Made love to me til morning light
We melted into one
‘Til all of the noises had gone
We melted into one ’til all of the noises had gone…
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Her words feel like diary pages left open on a windowsill, fluttering in a breeze of nostalgia and awe. Everything about this track glows softly – a sonic candlelit room for two, brimming with emotion. It’s delicate, but never faint. Love courses through its veins like sunlight warming skin.
“I wanted the production of the song to be minimal and to capture that exact evening,” Zavala – who writes, records, and produces her music – explains. “It didn’t need anything extra. From the dry acoustic guitars and honest lyrics to the expansive vocals and synth textures, the production represents how such an intimate moment can feel like you are floating through space and letting go of everything.”
“About a year and a half later, I finished recording synths and extra vocals at Estudio Novena in Mexico City, which is just ten minutes away from our house where that evening took place. It feels like a full circle to finish the song back in the place where it started.”
Musically, “MELT” is like a beautiful whisper – restrained but radiant, a masterclass in less-is-more.
Zavala’s production choices allow her lyrics and melodies to breathe, amplifying the song’s emotional weight through silence as much as sound. Echoes of Beach House’s dream-pop shimmer and Silvio Rodríguez’s lyrical romanticism can be felt here, but what rises strongest is Zavala’s own voice – ethereal, magnetic, and achingly real.
Born in Argentina and raised in London, Zavala has long fused her Anglo-Latin heritage into a lush, genre-fluid sound. Atwood Magazine praised her breathtaking debut album, 2018’s Aliso, as “a transcendental dream in musical form… [Zavala] immerses listeners in lush lullabies and sweetly haunting tapestries of sound that blur the lines between fantasy and reality, allowing us to revel in the alluring haze between asleep and awake.” The sort of debut every artist dreams of making, Aliso remains a pure, insulated and cathartic journey that flows fluidly from start to finish.
Seven years (and much more music) later, Zavala remains a singular, seductive force – and with MELT, she continues to evolve, centering love not just as subject matter, but as a practice of presence.
As a filmmaker and producer as well, she knows the power of world-building – and with “MELT,” she creates a sanctuary. A place to fall in love again.
Let this song hold you the way love once held you. Let it wrap around you like a memory, like a promise, like a whispered truth you never thought you’d say. Let yourself melt.
Malena Zavala’s MELT EP is set for release later this year on Paraná Records. Watch the song’s intimate music video and stream “MELT” exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
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Stream: “MELT” – Malena Zavala
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