Nell Mescal has never written like someone trying to hold anything back. ‘The Closest We’ll Get’ takes that instinct and turns it into something deliberate; a record about uncertainty, closure, and every confused thought in between.
Made in Brooklyn with producer Philip Weinrobe, it’s unfiltered in the best way: all late-night emotions and slow-burn realisations, the kind of songs that arrive when you stop overthinking and just tell the truth. Across six tracks, she picks through the wreckage of love and friendship with clarity that stings a bit. It’s not a heartbreak EP so much as a reckoning about what happens when you finally stop pretending everything’s fine and start saying what you actually mean.
Here, Nell breaks down ‘The Closest We’ll Get’ track by track for our latest Artist’s Guide.
Middle Man
Middle Man has been with me the longest. I wrote it about feeling so hopeless towards someone and wishing he would just cut me out for good. Now I look at it and think it’s actually about me and why i couldn’t be brave in the situation and save myself from the hurt I was going to go through. Recording it was very special – the take we use at the very end, you can hear my voice wobble. I felt very emotional.
The Closest We’ll Get
I wrote this in maybe the most immediate way. I had just heard something really upsetting and had to go to a writing session, and it kind of just poured out. I wanted people to feel like they were right there with me in the story. It was the first song we recorded for the EP after having just met the band, and again, I cried when we started arranging it, because I just felt like everything was aligning.
Carried Away
I think you can hear it in this song, but when I wrote it, I just felt so fed up and frustrated with the person and the situation. It started snowing after I left the session, and I sent it to everyone I knew, and just felt it so deeply that it was going to be important.
See You Again
Another one that I really wanted listeners to be able to kind of visualise exactly what this situation looked and felt like. I also felt like writing it made me realise just how much I needed to move on. Recording it was interesting because the initial demo is very, very pop, and creating the version that we have now was really fun and exciting, but also such a strange experience because I had “demoitis” in a big way.
Lose You Altogether
Slowly tying the story up with Lose You Altogether was really hard for me because it really felt like the ending of something as we wrote it, and I really, really wanted to hold on. I wanted it to feel dreamlike because I think I just would have stayed there forever if I could have.
Sweet Relief
I wrote this in two parts. The first time I tried writing it was during the thick of coming to terms with the idea of finally moving on, and when I finished it, it was 8 months later – a week before heading to the studio to record, where I was truly, completely over the situation. This is why we ended the EP here, because I think it really takes you through my headspace, in a way that I wasn’t expecting it to when I started writing it. To me, it really does feel like letting a high sigh of relief out.
Nell Mescal’s EP ‘The Closest We’ll Get’ is out now. Catch her on tour with HAIM this month, and then for her own headline tour in November and December.
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