A soul-stirring folk song born of grief, love, loss, and New York City landmarks, Melanie MacLaren’s “Get it Back” aches with nostalgia and acceptance as she reckons with the ravages of time.
for fans of Joni Mitchell, Lucy Dacus, Haley Heynderickx
Stream: “Get it Back” – Melanie MacLaren
There’s a coarse beauty in reality and a resigned beauty in being blunt.
It’s a sad, but true fact of life that the longer we live, the more we will lose.
People, love, relationships – they all come and go, none of them “replaceable,” but all of them temporary. You never know how long someone will be in your life, and no matter how much you try to soak in the good times while you’re in them, nostalgia and reflection will still get the best of you – and you’ll find yourself poignantly reminiscing on the way things used to be; the way you used to be. Such is the case with singer/songwriter Melanie MacLaren’s latest single: A soul-stirring folk song born of grief, love, loss and New York City landmarks, “Get it Back” dwells in a space of nostalgia and acceptance as the artist reckons with the ravages of time.
that couple was a sight to see
howling on the train passing Canal Street
saw the sign on the platform missing a “c”
I elbowed you and winked
haven’t laughed in a year or two
we cracked a couple cans
on the neighbor’s stoop
said this city is gonna change you soon
sounds nice, but where’s the proof
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Get it Back,” an achingly bittersweet reverie that highlights Melanie MacLaren’s talents as a singer, a songwriter, and a storyteller. Produced by Max Helgemo, it’s a gentle, dreamy song filled with meaningful, moving vignettes and personal memories scattered throughout New York City – from Canal Street to the Central Park Zoo, to the FDR and beyond.
Because once you lose someone, you start to see your world somewhat differently; ordinary, anodyne places stand out to you, becoming landmarks representing those shared special moments you can never get back. We ascribe objects and areas new meaning, and when we visit or think of them, we’re brought back into those memories – reconnected to our past, and to those we’ve lost, for a brief but powerful moment of time.
MacLaren’s music accentuates this experience, highlighting her own memories as grief pours from her like water from a hydrant.
I hate to break your heart
but we lost our spark on the FDR
watched it hail a cab
blackening the lanes like tire tracks
and we’re never gonna get it back,
never gonna get it back
“I wrote this song at a time when it was hard for me to be poetic, about things that are hard for me to see poetically,” MacLaren tells Atwood Magazine. “I think a lot of the time there’s this pressure for writers to derive a lesson out of grief and for artists to romanticize loss, but doing that doesn’t feel authentic to my voice.”
“There’s a coarse beauty in reality and a resigned beauty in being blunt. And I wanted to celebrate that with a song that feels radiant and life affirming in the face of unequivocally cataclysmic facts.”
Directed by Sofie Praestgaard, the “Get it Back” lyric video roots MacLaren’s song in New York City with candid snippets of places and spaces filmed throughout Manhattan. Most of landmarks are hard to place – we don’t know which subway station it is, and you’d have to do some considerable searching to identify the restaurant awnings, the record shops, and the specific Chinatown shops. But Central Park – a focal point of the video, and of the song – is instantly identifiable, and Praestgaard deftly captures the many worlds housed within that massive canvas of green grass, blue water, and grey concrete walkways.
King cone from a yellow stand
Nate was holding on to my grass-stained hand
eyes as big as a marching band
walking through the zoo
can we do this again tomorrow?
nothing better, far as I know
the sky’s too bright, the sky’s too blue
to sit all day in school
tore my world apart
scattering his ashes over Central Park
cry when I look back
ribbons in my hair and a Wiffle bat
you taught me how to hit in a Yankee hat
but the innocence is gone and that’s on that
and I’m never gonna get it back
Grief is a cruel monster, it’s true – but we grieve because we loved.
And ultimately, it’s not sadness, but love that shines brightest on “Get it Back.” Stream Melanie MacLaren’s latest single and lyric video exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and bask in the warm, wondrous world she creates as she reflects on life’s fleeting, but nonetheless worthwhile, beauty. This song is, ultimately, a testament to the fact that it’s better to love and lose – be it a parent, or a partner – than to have never loved at all.
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Stream: “Get it Back” – Melanie MacLaren
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© Blaire Beamer
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