“Year One,” the new single from singer-songwriter Riley Max, carries an ambiguous sense of serenity that sounds a little like acceptance, despite whatever storm may be raging. The song’s deep vocals and slow, almost meditative delivery soften some of the emotional weight of the lyrics, a sad poem in which the singer lays herself bare and speaks openly about all the difficulties she faced during a particular period of her life.
“I wrote ‘Year One’ when I was having a really tough time during my first year at Harvard. I was coming back from having some issues with my vocal cords, and I was dealing with a lot of other mental and physical health issues, as well as being completely and totally responsible for my life for the first time,” she shared.
The track comes with a music video that draws the viewer into Riley’s experience almost from a first-person perspective, as though walking alongside her throughout the journey. Everything seems to move at its normal pace while the protagonist is falling apart inside, struggling to keep up with the rhythm of life.
Real footage of the artist, presented without elaborate production and shaped by a lo-fi aesthetic, is interwoven with DIY-style stop-motion animation featuring a faceless clay figure trying to cope with its thoughts.
The figure attempts to move forward as a dark mass invades its space, grows, and eventually surrounds it, offering a simple yet effective visual representation of the weight that anxiety, exhaustion, and health struggles can take on when they accumulate.
“I wasn’t sure when—or if—I was ever going to start feeling like myself again, musically or otherwise. So this song means a lot to me, because every time I listen to it I remember how far I’ve come,” she added.
“Year One” serves as a record of the road Riley has traveled and the distance that now separates her from that period of her life. Looking back on those memories from the present, she acknowledges the uncertainty she felt at the time but also her ability to move through it and gradually reclaim her identity, both personally and musically.
The video’s animation grew out of Riley’s work in a class she took the year before. Pleased with the result, she decided to expand it and make it part of the music video, a process that deepened her interest in stop-motion. The segment is now part of the exhibition No Slop, No Second Screen: Animation—The Hard-Won Image, presented at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.
Originally from Colorado and just 21 years old, the singer-songwriter studies Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University, where she also serves as music director of The Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones and takes part in various musical theater productions. Her work as a cover illustrator and comic artist for The Harvard Independent further expands a multidisciplinary approach to storytelling.
The young artist had already showcased her creative sensibility on “ROY G BIV,” her debut album, which she wrote and recorded at 18. Now, she is preparing to release her second album in the fall, entering a new phase in which she continues to define her voice within folk pop.
“Year One” offers a glimpse into that evolution without separating the songwriter from the visual artist. Riley transforms one of the most difficult periods of her life into a piece that brings together music, everyday scenes, and animation. Looking back at the person she was during that first year, she now sees the distance she has traveled as a quiet reminder that she found her way back to herself. In less than five minutes, the song and video become an unspoken invitation for anyone facing their own battles to find a place for their sorrows in pure and raw art.
