In the great list of animals used metaphorically in love songs, birds rank pretty highly. Snails, less so. But our gastropod friends finally get their moment in the sun (although not the literally sun, which is probably not great for them) on the new single from beloved Tara Nome Doyle, Snail I. Snail I is a song about falling in love with someone slowly, but finding more meaning in it for that. It’s a staggeringly pretty piece of music, with Nome Doyle’s voice and piano lines falling over each other like a flower’s petals, and with a soft, subtle speed that its titular animal would be proud of, it builds into a towering, surging elegant song that stirs something deep inside the listener. Nome Doyle says: “Snail I is about my experience of receiving the kind of love I didn’t know I needed. A slow kind of love, not the ‘falling in love at first sight’ kind but rather the one you tentatively let yourself sink deeper into everyday. Teaching each other to be patient and brave enough to open to a new, shared understanding of life”. It’s out now, and you can expect more music from Tara Nome Doyle in the not too distant future since she also freshly announced her sophomore album Værmin for a release on January 28.