New LP from Me & Melancholy

Stockholm-based artist Peter Ehrling has spent the last few years bringing his own artistic expression to the world of electronic music. Working under the name Me & Melancholy, the self-taught musician and producer draws from the brooding atmospheres of 80s and 90s dark wave and synth pop, balancing immersive instrumentation with smooth rhythms, engaging vocals and melodies that hover somewhere between darkness and hope. Depeche Mode, New Order and Camouflage provide part of the project’s sonic fabric, while Swedish synth acts including The Mobile Homes and Elegant Machinery add another facet to Peter’s musical world.

Launched in 2022 with the debut single “The price was too high,” Me & Melancholy has since become a prolific creative endeavour. Across five albums, Peter has continued to explore emotional reflection, electronic experimentation and the overlap between nostalgia and cutting edge sound. He filters his influences through his own modern musical perspective, creating a sound that feels accessible and thoroughly original.

Now his musical adventure arrives at a particularly personal point with FEM., the project’s fifth full-length record. Moving between euphoric synth pop, industrial rhythms, post punk tension and atmospheric electronic melancholy, the record examines the distance between who we are, who others expect us to be and the versions of ourselves left behind after love and change. It’s an album interested in identity, but equally concerned with what happens when that identity is shaped by somebody else.

FEM. begins with “Dance with me,” one of Me & Melancholy’s most openly uplifting moments, where bright synths, lively movement and late-80s alternative dancefloor energy gives the track a sonic rush, even as uncertainty simmers beneath the surface. The desire to stop thinking, surrender to the moment and simply let everything flow becomes the song’s emotional context, wrapped up in an upbeat slice of dance-focused synth pop music brimming with memorable melodic writing and energising arrangement.

That light quickly retreats into the colder machinery of “Lost in you,” where fuzzy bass tones and mechanical drums create a more intense atmosphere, reflecting the experience of becoming so consumed by another person that devotion begins to blur into disappearance. Pulsing synths and the steady punch of percussion underpins Peter’s expressive vocal performance, forming an engrossing jam that’s intoxicating, invigorating and fiercely original all at once.

Across the album, Peter repeatedly returns to this dissonant area, exploring fractured souls, manipulation, damaged reputations and the struggle to retain a sense of self. “Broken Souls” searches for tenderness among people accustomed to concealing their wounds, while “All of You” reaches towards someone whose heart remains guarded. On “Reputation,” identity itself becomes a battleground, with labels such as aggressiveness and incompatibility repeating until they begin to resemble programming, captured in a gripping soundscape of jittery synths and rustling drums capped by moody vocal leads.

“Squidso” ventures further into surreal darkness, populated by shadows, whispers and things that never sleep while “The One I Am” responds with defiance via an upbeat outing full of infectious vocal leads carried by emotive vocal performance. The flutter of buzzy synths and graceful vocals combine on “All Love Is Gone” which thematically confronts the wreckage left when promises collapse and forgiveness becomes another burden.

“Just Like the Sun” finds a fragile warmth beneath the gathering clouds to craft an uptempo synth pop moment that rolls with driving rhythms and enveloping instrumentation. “No Permission” then leans into Me & Melancholy’s post punk stylings with a blend of airy synths and cold guitar notes driven by shuffling drums and led by compelling vocals. On closing track “Ghosts in the Mirror,” memory, absence and regret gather around the reflection, creating a final confrontation with everything that has been said, lost and left unresolved.

Commenting on release, Peter shares, “This album took a different path than I originally expected. I had planned to release it in May or June, but after my father passed away, working on music—and especially releasing such an upbeat opening track—didn’t feel right for a while. During the summer I wrote ‘Lost in you’, which brought a colder and more industrial energy into the album. That contrast eventually became an important part of FEM. Life doesn’t stay in one emotional place, and neither does this record.”

Adding, “The title simply means ‘five’ in Swedish. It is the fifth Me & Melancholy album, and FEM felt more personal and distinctive than calling it Five or 5. I’ve tried to follow the songs wherever they wanted to go rather than thinking about what an electronic album is supposed to sound like. Some parts are bright and immediate, others are repetitive, raw or uncomfortable. Together, they feel like an honest reflection of the period in which the album was made.”

Listen to FEM. below