Ariane X and Stuart Bruce (aka DonQuibeats, from her record label Banoffeesound) give their thoughts on each track on Better.

Track 1: Secret Asian

Ariane: My idea of a perfect pop song is one with a beautiful melody and intelligent lyrics: think Saint Etienne, Dubstar, Pet Shop Boys, Lightning Seeds, etc. This is what I’ve tried to achieve here. There is of course a darkness to the lyrics, contrasted with a sweet sound.

Stuart: Warm, positive, but with shady clouds over verse three. A really strong opener.

Track 2: Still Love You

Ariane: My friend Iain generously paid for this track to be mixed and mastered. He sent me a fantastic track by Speech Debelle called ‘Finish This Album’, which inspired me. I’d already recorded rap tracks for my second album, Bitter, but realised I wanted to record a rap track for Better as well. I wrote ‘Still Love You’ after a weekend when my daughter was acting out, to explain to her that my love for her is and will always be unconditional.

Stuart: Strongly relatable parents-of-teens mood with real attitude. Classic synthpop mix of sorrow and pain over a feel-good groove.

Track 3: When I Was Your Age (DonQuibeats Remix)

Ariane: I created a downtempo, dubby, brooding track about how my daughter has enhanced my life immeasurably; Stuart took it and turned it into something incredibly beautiful and ethereal.

Stuart: A thoughtful mix of positivity and hindsight, the real explainer for the album's title Better.

Track 4: Kaleidoscope

Ariane: This is the first track I wrote for the album, on my 40th birthday, inspired by watching my daughter’s tousled dark-blonde curls fall over her face while she was asleep. I felt and still feel such intense maternal love for her that I knew I wanted to write my debut album about her.

Stuart: A track that really embodies the gentle multiculturalism musically, while carrying one of the album's most direct and softest messages. Like many of the tracks on this album, it works both single-handedly and as part of the Better narrative. This feels like it should be added to the end credits of a feel-good but gritty rom-com.

Track 5: Demons

Ariane: This was one of the first tracks I wrote, and is about my anxiety and OCD, and how I try to shield my daughter from them. Partly because I don’t think any child should have to worry about their parent, and partly because I didn’t want her to develop mental health issues herself.

Stuart: We start a deeper dive here into some very personal issues. It's a strong reminder that this album bubbles with honesty and personal experience rather than glib and egocentric soap opera lyric writing. It also proves that people can be frank about mental health issues without it automatically being a negative thing to do.

Track 6: Not Normal

Ariane: This is one of only a couple of tracks I’ve ever written while crying (the other being a track called ‘Edie’, about how I wish I could support my estranged sister through her transition, which is not on the album). I’m actually fine most of the time, but when I laid down the starkness of what had happened to me in these lyrics, I fell apart a little.

Stuart: This feels like a second chapter to ‘Demons’, and sketches a very complex line about being different that manages to sound in equal parts proud and resigned and various other states in-between. This will be relatable to all sorts of self-diarists and self-analysers even if the details are different.

Track 7: Miracle

Ariane: This is about the fact that before pregnancy, in the throes of mental illness, I wished for a baby girl. Then, when my daughter was born, the doctors started taking my mental illness seriously, assigned me a psychiatrist and put me on some meds which actually worked. I found the perfect combination.

And in my grateful state and euphoria at having a baby, I could easily have attributed all of this to fate, so it's about remaining atheist while having a crazy amount of gratitude for my daughter and the way things have worked out. I know realistically that she's no more 'meant to be' than any baby, but I like to think she is when I'm being fanciful.

Stuart: Scepticism and cynicism doesn't stop us from appreciating some of life's most generous and magical moments, and that comes across in this out-and-out love song. The groove is like rocking a baby to sleep, contrasting with the lyrics that many children probably won't appreciate until they're much older (like most child-parent relationships, really).

Track 8: Happy

Ariane: I’m lucky to have a very bright kid who could turn her hand to pretty much anything, but I just want her to be happy. Along with ‘Tiny Girl’, this is the lightest track on the album.

Stuart: A three minute chunk of sunshine, pure and simple. A song that could almost work with pre-school kids yet could also land in the heart of some very cynical teenagers.

Track 9: Well, Baby

Ariane: I spent my late teens and early twenties singing and playing jazz piano in bars and hotels for money. This is the only track on the album with jazz piano - it’s deceptively jaunty and cheery-sounding for yet another track about mental illness.

Stuart: There's a finely-honed trick in this track, with a particularly sharp relief between the catchy and positive-sounding hook and what the lyrics really mean. It's a sonic ‘Is it cake?’ where the flavour isn't what you first expect, yet it still ends up tasting good.

Track 10: I’ll Be There

Ariane: Probably the most repetitive song I’ve ever written, but I love the backing vocals at the end - they really make the song. I wanted to reassure my daughter that, whatever she goes through in life, I’ll be right there beside her, helping and supporting her.

Stuart: A real showcase of the strong melodies throughout this album, an incredibly catchy and reassuring loop.

Track 11: Tiny Girl

Ariane: I love this track, though when I wrote it my daughter was nine years old and four foot five (as per the lyric) and now she’s thirteen years old and five foot two! I like the yodelly chorus, it’s a departure from my usual style but I enjoyed singing it.

Stuart: An interesting musical side-step, faster and with a curiously tropical twist yet a melody that feels almost folky. This is another showcase of polished pop songwriting, and evidence that Ariane X has the three-minute pop song absolutely nailed.

Track 12: Butterfly

Ariane: This is a really summery song - I wrote it late last summer, inspired by the fact that my daughter used to love butterflies. It has quite an unusual chord progression and a pretty melody. I think it rounds off the album well, leaving it on a positive note.

Stuart: A perfect wrap-up, as the message about timeless love, aptly ending with a fade rather than a stop, sweetens everything off. Even if the sun is going to explode the sky (as per the lyrics) one day, it's impossible not to be heartwarmed by the end.

Summary

Ariane: These are the most meaningful and emotional songs I’ve ever written, totally from the heart. My songs always are, but these are on another level as they’re about my daughter. I’m not sure this album will resonate with many people as a result, but I’m so glad I put it out there, so she can always listen to it and hear how much I love her.

Stuart: It's a set of twelve really personal postcards, which often shock and surprise with their candid lyrics, and cut quite close to the bone sometimes as a parent. But there's a lot of love at the core of it that ends up oozing out, and the musical polish and catchy melodies tie it all up with a bow into a really impressive and emotive album.