We Speak Music
Clarity Liao Explores Heartbreak In New Release ‘Like I Do’
San Francisco–based singer-songwriter Clarity Liao solidifies her place among pop’s most compelling emerging artists with the arrival of her newest single, ‘Like I Do’, an intimate and stripped-back track that captures the quiet pain of unreciprocated love through honest lyrics and imagery of walking aimlessly through a desert landscape.
Driven primarily by piano, the arrangement gives listeners the space to fully absorb Clarity’s soft yet confident vocal delivery. The chorus is particularly heartbreaking, revealing a narrator who remains unable to let go of the person on their mind: “No I / Can′t seem to forget about you / They said to wait / And I′ve been waiting / For it to hit you / Sometimes / I think about your smile / And I wonder bout that girl / Would she really love you / Like I do.” It perfectly captures what is expected from a reflective, slow-burning breakup song.
Clarity began writing music at the age of seven, quickly gravitating toward both piano and guitar as her primary instruments. Her songwriting work with the band Navillera received critical recognition, earning the Yamaha National Best Popular Music Award for their debut single “Too Young,” while “I Need You” reached first place in the 2025 YMS National Composers competition. Her solo catalogue also demonstrates impressive maturity, particularly “Hurt My Heart,” which she wrote and recorded at only twelve years old. Inspired by artists including Olivia Rodrigo, Bruno Mars, Celine Dion and Frankie Valli, Clarity’s sound blends indie pop, R&B, bedroom pop and touches of modern doo-wop into a sonic identity that feels both nostalgic and contemporary.
‘Like I Do’ originally began as an assignment from her English tutor. She says, “The song really brought out my emotions from the current situation I was in at the time, also exploring a genre I’ve been liking but never really got to pursue, so I decided to take it to the studio. This song has so far been one of my favourite tracks to sing and listen to, also being one of the best expressed in my lyrics.”
Clarity Liao is continuing to demonstrate the depth of her artistic vision and musical talent. ‘Like I Do’ reinforces her growing reputation as a modern pop artist whose heartfelt storytelling has the potential to resonate with listeners of all ages.
Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.
‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.
The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.
The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:
Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”
About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.
We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”
The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.
Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.
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