New Release – Wonderful Life by Malachi Graham

Portland (USA) indie songwriter Malachi Graham twines her incisive lyrics and inventive sounds around the complexity of personal relationships. Malachi is the lyrical half of the synth-pop duo Small Million.

The album ‘Caretaker’ (releasing January 19, 2024) is what came out when a bad breakup opened her eyes to pathological behavior all around her – and in herself. She is embracing a rockier sound to chart a rockier road, and using her deft, sometimes blunt, lyrics to examine codependency, unraveling love, chronic pain, grudges, flings, addictions of all sorts, and the boundaries of the self. The emotions she dredges up cover a spectrum from bitter humor to gentle despair, and the music similarly ranges from delicate to raw. As she wrote these songs different anxieties rushed out like a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. It is certainly her most mature, emotional, resonant, vulnerable work.

Malachi will be releasing ‘Wonderful Life’, the second single from her upcoming album ‘Caretaker’ on 1st December. I

“It’s a dark meditation on the holiday season’s most popular movie, addressed to my mother in a time of mental health crisis, that blooms into a gorgeously reassuring chorus.”

“There’s enough of me to go around, until there’s not.”

“The holidays are notoriously hard on people’s mental well-being, with all the forced cheer around us, including music. ‘Wonderful Life’ puts honesty first, acknowledging real pain while reaching a reassurance that is brave rather than saccharine.”

“Starting with spare, unadorned vocals over a simple drum machine, ‘Wonderful Life’ grows in evolving textures to a huge, resonant, almost hymnal chorus, without ever losing the straightforwardness of the vocal delivery, that sounds like it’s spoken at a bedside. The song lives in the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of reassuring someone in crisis.”

“The resonances in this song run deep, as deep as family history and family trauma. The tragedy of some caretakers lies in how putting so much into the world can crush the one who is giving. We’re all learning to breathe, and if you let it, this music can fill up your chest. It starts dry, with pain, but it ends wet with tears that might be joy.”

Maybe it’s just a reassurance you tell yourself, in the guise of a reassurance you give to someone who needs it even more.

‘Wonderful Life’ was written by Malachi Graham. Keys arranged and performed by Philippe Bronchtein. Produced by Philip Graham & Malachi Graham. Mixed by John Askew. Mastered by Amy Dragon at Telegraph Mastering.