Girl in Red talks chemical imbalances and intrusive thoughts in exceptionally powerful new track ‘Serotonin’

Courageous and laced with vulnerability “Serotonin” from Girl in Red delves further into her mind and mental health than ever before. 

Marie Ulven’s fanbase has learned to always expect honesty from the 22-year-old singer-songwriter and here she opens up about her “incredibly intrusive” thoughts with lyrics including “I get intrusive thoughts like cutting my hands off / Like jumping in front of a bus / Like how do I make this stop.”

 The Norwegian singer strays from her recognisable bedroom-pop sound on this track and plunges herself into an, ironically, serotonin-inducing beat. The raw emotion laid out here as fact with experimental sound makes this an incredible listen. 

From the opening lyric, “I’m running low on serotonin / Chemical imbalance got me twisting things” it appears Girl in Red is making some exciting changes to her sound both lyrically and musically. After a familiar melodic start to the song, we take an interesting turn into a guitar-driven melody that reflects the dark nature of her intrusive thoughts. This change in sound feels passionate and shows development in Marie’s sound that we haven’t seen before in earlier tracks such as 2018’s “Summer depression”.  

Fast lyrics and up-tempo beat reflect the speed at which unwelcome intrusive thoughts flood Marie’s brain and we feel how distressing this is for her. The song makes huge strides at normalising taboo mental health issues like intrusive thoughts that an estimated 94% of people struggle with at some point in their lives. 

Production by the brother of Billie Eilish , FINNEAS, and Matias Tellez pours a new kind of flavour and maturity into the track and while this record has a sprinkle of Girl in Red’s homegrown sound it is mixed in with pop and hip-hop which will surely lead to comparisons with artists like Clairo and Lana Del Rey. 

“Serotonin” seamlessly switches genres and builds to an outro in Marie’s native tongue, Norwegian, which adds an extra personable layer that is truly refreshing. The release of “Serotonin” follows the announcement of Marie’s much-awaited debut album “If I could make it go quiet” arriving April 30^th this year and after the release of this track and singles “Rue” and “Midnight love” it is sure to be an exciting and moving release which will elevate Girl in Red to a new level.

 Zoe Wheeler

@zoe.wheeler_ @zoewheelermedia

Image: Official Artwork  154789822_261297695451929_4586860213691795003_o.jpg (1875×1875) (fbcdn.net)