Wilder Music

By Celina Di Meola.

With “Rewind,” the third track from Zara Smile’s forthcoming EP, they offer a slow-blooming meditation on healing, memory, and joy. The song opens simply – a lone acoustic guitar carrying the folk-tinged melody, allowing the listener to step gently into their world. By the first tone the guitar sets, you’re already rewinding, pulled backward into something softer, more forgiving. When Zara’s voice enters, they add the second level of healing – not just the invitation to look back, but the permission to stay there long enough to make peace with what you find. Soon, soft vocal harmonies emerge, weaving a warm and human texture. A plaintive woodwind voice – likely an oboe or cor anglaise – slips in, its rounded timbre lending a bittersweet edge.

With the second verse, the arrangement begins to shift. Percussion, understated at first, starts to play with the listener’s expectations, subtly syncopated, almost as if stepping out from behind a curtain. This is where the track’s magic really reveals itself. The rhythm doesn’t simply keep time; it shapes the song’s emotional momentum, carrying it forward like a heartbeat newly found. The final stretch blooms into a small-scale orchestral moment: strings lifting the harmonic space, the woodwind stepping into a melodic solo, as if to speak one last truth before fading. It’s an arrangement that feels both intimate and expansive, proof of Zara’s instinct for emotional pacing.

Lyrically, “Rewind” is tender and hopeful, rooted in the idea that time can heal. The internal struggle is captured in the line, “can I hold me get back to you,” and the track’s deep allurelies in its celebration of the healing journey, not as a straight line, but a winding path. This is about choosing to savor growth rather than rushing to its conclusion, a sentiment reflected in the poignant observation that “time seems to pass so slowly”. Musically, it blends the introspective warmth of Lucy Dacus and Adrienne Lenker with the raw charm of Folk Bitch Trio.