When it's love, you can say all the right things. We can teach wolves to whistle. We can kiss while the planets spin and fall around us. This sensation is just the beginning of Tender Forever's second full-length album, Wider. Tender Forever is Melanie Valera, the striking singer, multi-instrumentalist and performer who touched us last year with her breakout LP The Soft and the Hardcore. Each song on Wider moves you deeper into that warm, dimly lit place we all want to be: the eloquent, blunt, fantastic tragedy where big harmonies, insanely contagious hooks and a turn of phrase can make you feel that the world is good; that those calluses can yield; that the soft focus of the future feels clear and present.

The true gifts of Tender Forever, of course, are the songs. And every one of them is a hit. Within these twelve new, utterly memorable songs, Tender Forever brings you into her room and offers to read from her love letters. You can watch her seal them with a kiss. She wants to let you in. You?d be a fool not to at least take a peek. While The Soft and the Hardcore folded all the nervous butterflies of courtship into infectious pop songs, Wider goes even deeper. Melanie's voice soars and dips, catching you off guard with the conviction of a woman who knows her own strength.

Did you see her play? Did she roll on you? Did you see her spill that guy's beer, and draw a heart from the little bubbling puddle? Did you want her to sing to you? Wider was produced in Olympia and Bordeaux with mostly borrowed instruments (some rice and a saucepan are credited); confidently textured with piano, guitar, cheap and expensive keyboards and a pile of other devices that drive these ultimately satisfying, beat-centric compositions. Tender Forever plays every note like each song is her last attempt to convince you to stay. Listen once, and you will.

Also available as individual track downloads:
1. Tiny Heart and Clover Hand
2. Doves vs. Pigeons
3. In the Backyard
4. How Many
5. No One Will Tell No One For Sure
6. Nicer if They Tried
7. Folded Papers
8. Well I can Take It
9. Heartbroken Forever
10. I'm So Tired
11. Wider Too
12. So We Could Deal