SINGLE REVIEW: Mel Denisse – Going Nowhere
‘Going Nowhere’ is a haunting, absorbing drift through shadowed corners of alt-rock and shoegaze — the kind of track that pulls you under without ever raising its voice. Mel Denisse leans into fragility rather than force, letting her soft, unguarded vocals act as the song’s compass while reverb-soaked guitars bloom around her in layers of slow-motion atmosphere.
The arrangement moves like a tide. It begins low-key and intimate, almost whispered, before swelling into a denser wall of sound that never loses its softness. The textures feel carefully sculpted: hazy, hypnotic, and warmly disorienting, the sort of production where every echo invites you deeper in. It’s a song you don’t just hear — you dissolve into it.
What makes ‘Going Nowhere’ so captivating is the purity in Mel’s vocal delivery. There’s an innocence to her tone, but also a stark honesty in the way she phrases the lyrics — a quiet certainty that cuts through the haze. That balance of vulnerability and clarity feels deeply human, and it allows the track to explore its themes with real emotional weight.
Inspired by The Serpent & the Wings of Night, the song elegantly bridges fantasy and reality, echoing ideas of survival by staying unseen, of loyalty tested against self-preservation, of trying to move forward when the ground beneath you refuses to solidify. Mel doesn’t treat the fantasy influence as a gimmick; instead, she folds it into her emotional language, allowing the imagery to seep into the mood rather than dominate it.
Musically, the track sits somewhere between the maturity and restraint of Slowdive and the youthful, searching nature of Babygirl. It carries the dreamy expansiveness of shoegaze but keeps its emotional core unfiltered, unbribed, and intimate.
‘Going Nowhere’ is the kind of song you can lose yourself in — not because it demands escape, but because it feels like a safe place to pause. Hypnotic, honest, and quietly spellbinding, Mel Denisse turns stillness into something deeply moving.
