Wynona’s “Say You Love Me” walks the tightrope between love and heartbreak

Now three tracks into their musical foray, Wynona have firmly stamped their sound as one of authenticity, relevance, and nostalgic maturity. Tackling relationships from a refreshingly honest perspective, “Say You Love Me” lies in much the same vein as previous singles “Real World” and “Get Back To Myself,” which focussed on the interstices of ambivalence and confusion within dating.

The band explains “‘Say You Love’ me explores the space between a heartbreak anthem and a love song. I wanted to address that grey area, something that felt more authentic and where realistically most relationships spend their time. It’s somewhere between the highs and the lows that we often see portrayed in movies and online. I wanted it to feel real.”

Indeed, “Say You Love Me” plays with the idea of feeling like a passenger in your relationship, made to feel insecure about how your partner truly feels for you, despite what they may say. The “he loves me, he loves me not” thread that underpins the narrative drive of the track is well-replicated in its accompanying music video. Here, the lead singer of the band, Natalie, aptly picks at a wedding-style floral bouquet before being showered by petal confetti. The question becomes all-consuming, ringing louder in her ears with every build in percussion and an increasingly emotive chorus.

The indie-pop track is laced with threads of pop-punk and pop-rock, impressively tessellating in a new wave soundscape akin to Alanis Morrisette, Black Honey, and The Pretenders. Here, Natalie’s earthy vocal performance is grounded in a gritty guitar-led production that rejects passivity and staunchly demands the clarity she deserves. “You’re just a kid fingerpainting over my lines,” she scathes, “…I’m your toy come to life when you’re not around.”

However, thankfully this may be more fiction than fact, as Natalie’s partner Rich also leads the band, and co-wrote the track with her. As revealed by a behind the scenes TikTok compilation of its writing process, “Say You Love Me” was initially penned on a secluded getaway to the Lake District, before instrumentation was added in their Reading home studio, and the band played it through and shaped it together. It is thus no wonder the song has such a complex and layered sound, and one that is sure to carry into their debut EP set to drop towards the end of 2022.