“Real love doesn’t necessarily require you to stay. Sometimes it’s just about enjoying the fact that they’re growing.”
At 17 Ava Valianti is still uncovering new facets of her songwriting with ‘bloom’ which is a very quiet, very understated single that really works on the idea of loving someone without trying to possess them. Rather than go in for the uncertainty of romance or the fear of losing someone, she’s looking at it from a completely different angle which is that you can love someone and just let them be. You can love them and be content with that, even if they one day go on to become someone else and you’re not part of that. The flower imagery (bloom, roots, petals, the weather) is a great way of conveying that idea and it’s very warm and natural. There’s a real sense of fragility in the realisation that someone you love may one day outgrow you, but “bloom” finds something really lovely in that. It’s a song about loving someone and just letting them go. It’s a song about loving someone and not making it a condition that they have to stay.
it’s a warm jazz piece, with a piano based arrangement, very subtle instrumentation, relaxed phrasing and lovely harmonies. Valianti’s voice is so intimate in this one that it never really tries to dominate the emotion. It’s just there, letting the melody and the words do the talking and the whole thing has a very personal, unhurried feel. It’s a more mature take on the idea of love than “acupuncture” or the idealisation of “celebrity” and is the next step in the emotional journey of her upcoming EP kismet. The arrangement is a lot softer than the guitar driven pop rock of Sophomore Slump* and is clearly a shift in direction, incorporating jazz, R&B and soul in the process. “Bloom” serves as a reminder that sometimes loving someone is about giving them the space to become all that they are, even if you never know whether your paths are going to cross again.
What’s so compelling about Ava Valianti is her sheer willingness to let her music develop rather than just find one particular style. Her body of work has been a real exploration of the complexities of growing up, all underpinned by a deeply honest emotional core, a very creative approach to storytelling and a very distinctive songwriting voice. She’s built up a huge amount of independent momentum already, with well over 100k streams, played on over 300 radio stations around the world and has been nominated for a number of music awards, as well as performing at the GRAMMY Museum in LA. “Bloom” isn’t the track that makes you go “wow” in terms of achievement though. It’s the sincerity at its heart that makes it so special. It’s a track that is very thoughtful for its age and yet retains that simplicity which is so accessible. As another look at kismet it suggests an artist who is really beginning to feel confident in her ability to take a very small, very human emotion and make it into something that really sticks. “Bloom” is one of her most heartfelt and moving moments to date.
“Real love doesn’t always mean holding on. Sometimes, it means being grateful you got to witness someone bloom, even if their journey takes them somewhere new.”
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