Aditi Babel – Merry Go Ride (Single Review)

Singer-songwriter Aditi Babel has a new single, ‘Merry Go Ride’. This is her third single. I reviewed her first, ‘Superstitions’, a song which opened with ‘a calm guitar’​, I noted.

In that same review, I mentioned that the track offered very little in terms of instrumentation, which forced my attention toward her vocal performance and songwriting. Chloe Tiffin-Gearing covered her follow-up, ‘the space’, describing it as a ‘tender and emotionally honest piece of indie pop that captures the quiet moments after a break’. That specific phrasing serves as a reminder that ‘Superstitions’ was essentially a love song.

Anyway, let’s dive into ‘Merry Go Ride’. The artist characterizes the track as a dreamy, cinematic piece ‘about a love that finds you when you finally stop looking’, which sets an intriguing premise. Mentioning panned mandolins as part of the arrangement suggests a shift in sonic texture. This implies that Aditi Babel is stepping beyond the acoustic guitar focus that defined her debut.

The track is anchored by a dense bassline, while the string arrangements remain relatively understated. Her vocals feel somewhat submerged beneath that low-end presence; even in the moments where the bass recedes, the voice retains a certain sense of distance. That said, Aditi Babel’s vocal tone itself remains a highlight, offering a genuinely pleasant listening experience.

The narrative introduces us to a lyrical persona who stumbles upon love quite by accident. They find this connection while they aren’t even looking, unaware they were essentially lost to begin with. The persona further notes that after the various battles they’ve endured, they certainly weren’t in the market for another conflict.

There is a notable sense of movement in the vocal performance; beyond the standard delivery, Aditi Babel incorporates moments of cooing throughout the track. At certain points, her voice and the backing arrangement almost mirror one another, particularly as she sings, ’round and round and round and round we go’.

SCORE/Good: While the instrumentation is characterized by a dense bassline, the overall atmosphere of the track remains quite understated. There is a certain paradox at play: despite the vocals feeling restrained, they simultaneously evoke a sense of liberation. Those low-key vocal layers, likely due to the inclusion of the cooing, somehow inspire a desire to sing along at the top of one’s lungs. Aditi Babel is an artist whose work remains lovable even when it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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