No one can ever quite express melancholy like the British, it seems to be our most abhorrable quality. Likewise, few can express angst as perfectly as somebody in their teens. So with 18-year-old British musician Peacock Affect (or George Holman, as he’s also known)… oh my.

‘The Fall’ is a track so full of dread and melancholy that the weight of the lyrics keep the vocals droning and the melody subdued into an emotional whimper. All the time we talk about emotion in music, but here it’s such a heartbreaking cry of angst in it’s purest form that you can’t help but find it enjoyable in a bittersweet way.

But while the lyrics and their delivery are the key part of this track, the music itself captures the melancholy mood perfectly. It opens with a few guitar layers – a clean electric one, and an acoustic one (unless we’re mistaken) – playing over an atmospheric ambience that glues it all together. It’s all very simple stuff, but it’s effective. This is a song with a simple purpose: to make you feel something.

And nothing strikes the heartstrings quite like a string section. And guess what? This track has that too. As it draws closer to its beautifully sombre climax, strings arrive to help us glide into a fade. As it happens you can just imagine Holman lying, apathetically, on his bed staring at the ceiling and pondering his own internal despair.

Meanwhile, you’re also pondering yours. This is the magic of the track – it evokes a powerful emotional reaction in you as a listener. Holman’s pain is real, and so is yours. Maybe this is why this track is so good.

The beautiful picked instrumental close, and the grim humour in his lyrics (“I wonder if one day, I’ll take up magic tricks so that I appear more exciting“), make this track a must-listen. And you can do so, right now, below. Bring a tissue.