Ballads – My Journey (2024)
by Millennium
I asked a nineteen-year-old girl for a playlist of well-known pop ballads she liked. The result: acoustic ballads, mostly break-up songs, and lyrics about being lost, searching for identity, and meaning. Based on these findings, I created the album My Journey.
In Magic Mirror, I focus on self-doubt — more specifically, how your own looks compare to the ideals promoted by Western fashion. Inspired by Snow White’s magic mirror, which symbolizes how self-doubt can shape your character, I asked the mirror: 'Who’s the fairest of them all?'
For the song My Guitar, I wrote about a girl with no parental guidance, who has to find her own path. Feeling lost among people, she eventually finds solace in music — especially in playing guitar. To me, when we feel lost, we turn to music for emotional connection and recognition.
I was born in winter, my favorite season. On my birthday, the first snow of the year often covers the colors of the earth in white. I turned that feeling into Ice Queen, an imaginary figure who freezes your heart with her love — numbing the pain, but leaving you senseless, estranged from yourself. (This is also the theme of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen, which tells the story of a boy named Kai, who is frozen in time by the Snow Queen until a girl from his town travels north to free him with her burning, salty tears.)
When you’re young and you meet someone, you remember it vividly; your first love’s journey imprints itself on your mind. I Remember is about a young man looking back on how they met, cherishing what she meant to him, so he can finally let go.
Hometown explores the rigid morals of a small town, where the next generation simply repeats the old. The only way out: leaving, and breaking all ties.
Finally, Lover’s Quarrel is about a young man drifting from one girlfriend to another; lost in his search for 'the one', he can’t find a relationship that lasts.
I hope you’ll enjoy the album: My Journey