The London-based artist Ivana June returns with her new single, “Around,” a deep and vulnerable track that flits pleasantly between nostalgia and painful memory. Co-produced with Pete Anderson and featuring Ivana herself on guitar, the song transports listeners into the jarring, contradictory feelings of a love that still lives between a happier past and a painful present.
From the first strum, “Around” establishes a bittersweet, but also tender, mood, inviting listeners into a narrative of love once loved, now colored by bittersweet sentiment. Ivana’s voice, gentle but full of feeling, conjures images of meeting someone at a familiar bench in the park, reflecting on a once unshakeable bond.
“Around” is about the reckoning that some love, no matter how beautiful, comes with its share of hurt. As the song progresses, the tenderness of nostalgia clashes with the pain of the realization that that which once was whole, probably will never be whole again. Ivana imbues each lyric with an aching sincerity, her voice both tender with love and raw with its absence.
The production is as intimate as the narrative. For this stripped-back mission, with Ivana on guitar, the focus goes on the vulnerability of her vocals, her storytelling, the guitar work, and production, setting a scene while allowing glimpses into her world in this honest articulation of how she feels. The collaboration with Pete Anderson creates a cinematic yet wholly intimate sound. It entangles listeners in the emotional complexity of a relationship that continues to exist under the skin and in the folds of the heart.
Ivana June’s “Around” is an experience that speaks to anyone who has ever been stuck between the splendor of the way things used to be and the agony of how they are now. It’s a beautiful reminder that love, at its most painful, creates a footprint that time cannot erase.
Connect with Ivana June on Instagram – @ivana__june
