On his new single "Tell Me That You Love Me Too," Romanian artist Tristan Turdean opens up a wounded new chapter of his concept EP "5 SONGS TO GET OVER YOU," and it's one of those pop punk heart-on-sleeve confessions that goes straight for the soul cut, especially if you've ever been trapped in the echo chamber of what-ifs and could've-beens. In classic Tristan form, he writes a brilliantly concocted track that sounds as if it was put to paper mid-text draft, the one you never sent, or maybe you did and then regretted instantly.
Crisp and emotional in its production, the song stacks driving, crashing guitars and drums against aching vocals about wrestling with the very human instinct to hang on just a little longer. This one is a brief cinematic tour through the five stages of grief following a breakup. And here in the bargaining stage we are, staring directly at the spot where pride is behind us, and desperation is in the passenger seat. The yearning is real. The questions are honest. And the effort to turn back the love, if only for a moment, is achingly relatable. A self-produced multi-instrumentalist from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Tristan was obviously not simply playing into his roots with delightful sincerity.
His DIY spirit runs rampant throughout the track, from the gritty delivery of the vocals to the sharp transitions that reflect the give-and-take of heartbreak. There's a profound sense that this isn't just a performance, but an experience. Whether you're in the midst of a breakup of your own or can still recall what that ache was like, "Tell Me That You Love Me Too" will strike a chord. It's a reminder that love, even when it falls right out of your hands, does not always leave quietly. Tristan Turdean knows a thing or two about parlaying personal grief into a universal gut-punch. And if this is bargaining, we can't wait to see what the next stage sounds like.
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