Manchester-via-Italy singer songwriter Julia Bardo returns with the wistful “I Wanna Feel Love”

Following her debut single “Desire”, a slice of jangling, swooning Americana, Julia Bardo follows up its dusk-lit mood with the propulsive rhythms of 1960s Beat music. Planting another stylistic flag in the ground – even including a snippet of Bardo speaking in her native Italian in the bridge – “I Wanna Feel Love” hearkens back to early-'60s girl groups. At once full of yearning and giddiness, Bardo mixes a twee naiveté on the track’s titular chorus with sly assertion on its verses, declaring what she’s seeking in love.

“I was in a relationship that didn’t work for me,” says Bardo. “I felt like I lost my inspiration —There was no colour in my life. I started to think, 'Is this how I want my life to be? Is my life over at 24? Is this really the way I want to be loved?' So, I started to write about the way I see love. I’ve always wanted to feel special for someone, I’ve always wanted a fiery and intense, passionate love. And eventually I got it."

Accompanied by a gloriously retro video, Bardo impersonates an older version of herself, or what she describes as "a more mature woman, almost like a retired film star from the '60s, who's been waiting her whole life for something to happen, for love to come.”

“The video is about this never-ending wait — waiting for something to end, waiting for something to start, waiting for someone to come home, for a phone call, for someone who's going to love me."

“For me, music is about healing what is hurt inside of me," she says. "I heal by writing and talking about what troubles me. I’ve always been very lonely, and I’ve always been very emotional — these things inform my music quite a bit.”