Adam Melchor and Mt. Joy’s “Room On Your Shoulder” Defines Nearly a Decade of Growth
If you’ve never heard of Adam Melchor, consider this your sign to dive into his mesmerizing discography. To ring in the new year right, Melchor teams up with indie rock band Mt. Joy, fronted by Matt Quinn.
The two released their first single of 2025, “Room On Your Shoulder,” just one week into the new year, But this song has been shaped and transformed over the course of the past seven years. Melchor, Quinn, and Sam Cooper originally penned the track in 2018 when Melchor opened for Mt. Joy but just couldn’t put it away after all these years.
The song began as a lesson of love prevailing, whether that be through painful seasons of life or moments of forgiveness. “Tryna to save your colors while the walls are caving in / Feels like growing gardens from cement / I'm just left to wonder if you had some love to lend,” the pair sings.
Over time, “Room On Your Shoulder” morphed into “an ode to camaraderie and friendship and how the chapters of our lives do not have to define the chapters ahead,” according to an Instagram post made by Melchor. They sing tenderly, reminiscing about a deep connection lost, “I find it hard to fall asleep when no one out here gets mе / 'Cause you were always by my sidе from L.A. to New Jersey.”
The entire single holds an air of confusion as Melchor and Quinn question their own feelings as they accept this devastating loss. In the first verse, Melchor sings, “I thought I'd know by now if you and me were meant.” He gets stuck putting this into words. Without getting the full sentence out, listeners can feel a palpable sense of longing.
Amidst this confusion, their voices hold two different qualities, Melchor with a whimsical one and Quinn with a charming roughness. They meld together seamlessly, enhancing the raw lyricism with two opposing vocal qualities.
The cathartic nature of “Room On Your Shoulder” is clear. From the time they began writing seven years ago, Melchor and Quinn have grown, changed, and deepened their own relationship. The entire atmosphere of the single is rooted in trust.
In the final stretch, a trumpet cries out as they ask again and again, “Is there room on your shoulder?”
Listen to "Room On Your Shoulder" below:
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