Mélanie Pain Unveils New Single 'Dreamloop'

Nouvelle Vague vocalist announces intimate new album 'How and Why' and European tour.

French singer Mélanie Pain - the voice behind indie-pop group Nouvelle Vague - returns with ‘Dreamloop,’ a new single taken from her forthcoming solo album, ‘How and Why,’ out this month via Kwaidan Records.

New track, ‘Dreamloop’ captures Pain’s rare ability to hold light and shadow in the same breath: radiant melodies wrapped around lyrics steeped in quiet emotional turmoil.

The track pulses with a retro-futurist warmth reminiscent of Stereolab, Broadcast, and The Velvet Underground - breezy on the surface, psychedelic and melancholy underneath. Recorded live with her band (Raphaël Chassin, Oliver Smith, Jérôme Plasseraud, and Alexis Anérilles), ‘Dreamloop’ carries the immediacy of a performance unfolding in real time. Hypnotic percussion and soft folk textures frame Pain’s unmistakable vocals, which deliver lines like incantations: tender, fragile, and searching.

At its core, the song is an intimate portrait of someone watching a loved one slip into a looping mental spiral, trying to offer a rope out of the darkness even when words fail.

“‘Dreamloop’ is a refuge-song,” Pain explains. “It’s a spell to navigate the night - a delicate exploration of depression and the mental states that confine us.”

With over two decades at the forefront of French pop - from Nouvelle Vague’s iconic reimaginings to her own acclaimed solo releases - Mélanie Pain enters a new era with How and Why: a luminous, acoustic-driven album inspired by Kings of Convenience, Iron & Wine, and Emilíana Torrini, featuring a duet with Brian Lopez (Calexico) and a sensual reinterpretation of Turkish rock band Duman.

Alongside the new single, Pain has announced European tour dates for 2025, promising intimate performances that place her storytelling and unmistakable voice centre stage.