Photo credit: Jen Squires

Merival has shared ‘No Brakes’, a powerful song that will feature on her debut album ‘Lesson’ (out 21 June). The short and sharp track finds Merival discussing what she now realises to be the melodramatic notion that her songs declined in quality when she found better mental health and realising how she ‘could see the dark humour in spending so much time and energy trying to get healthy, only to turn right around and wish I was still messed up’ – and how it’s OK to laugh at yourself when you think weird thoughts like this.

The fractured but beautifully quirky pop sound brings to mind the likes of Regina Spektor and Imogen Heap as Merival admits ‘I’d like to be myself again’ and how ‘Maybe I should be a little less careless with my thoughts’ in an attempt to write THE song or find ‘better’ art. There’s a carnival feel as she then talks about how it’s OK to take time out to find a better head space and how ‘Maybe I’ve had mine and all that has been will change’.