Cleveland singer-songwriter Carrie Ryan has steadily been carving out a reputation as a voice of raw vulnerability and quiet strength. With her latest single, “Learn to Let Go,” released August 8th, 2025, she takes another leap forward—delivering a track that feels intimate and cinematic, carrying the weight of personal reflection while glimmering with the sonic polish of her indie-rock influences. Produced, mixed, and mastered by longtime collaborator Matt Dougherty, the single is a striking marriage of Ryan’s emotional candour and a darker, atmospheric soundscape that recalls the haunting resonance of a Twilight-era soundtrack.
From the first notes, “Learn to Let Go” establishes a moody tension. The guitar tones arrive like cautious footsteps in a dimly lit room, while Ryan’s vocals cut through the haze with clarity and urgency. Her voice has always been her anchor—rich, expressive, and carrying just enough fragility to make each lyric feel like a confession. Here, that quality is amplified. She sings with the weight of someone on the edge of surrender, grappling with the universal human difficulty of letting go of what no longer serves us. It’s a theme as old as songwriting itself, yet Ryan breathes fresh life into it, rendering the idea of release not as weakness but as survival.
The writing itself has its roots in challenge and constraint. Originally born from a Terra Songwriting prompt—“release”—in December 2024, the track carries the rawness of something wrestled into existence rather than meticulously planned. Inspired by the Duplass Brothers’ show Togetherness, Ryan uses the narrative of release to paint the messy interiority of human relationships: how pride, fear, and habit can keep us tethered to people or versions of ourselves that we’ve outgrown. In her hands, the concept feels neither abstract nor didactic. It’s lived-in, deeply personal, and yet completely relatable.
Musically, Ryan casts her net wide, drawing on Manchester Orchestra’s The Way for its brooding intensity, while weaving in echoes of Halsey’s electro-inflected pop, Holly Humberstone’s diaristic melancholy, and Noah Gundersen’s stark emotional landscapes. The result is a sound that feels familiar yet distinctively her own. The track straddles genres comfortably: too textured and moody to sit squarely in pop, too melodically driven to be fully alt-rock. Instead, it inhabits that dark-pop in-between space where emotion becomes atmosphere, and atmosphere becomes narrative.
Lyrically, “Learn to Let Go” is plainspoken and poetic. Ryan doesn’t obscure her meaning in metaphor, but there’s a subtle artistry in how she phrases vulnerability without drowning in sentimentality. Each line is honed for emotional precision, carrying weight without excess. It’s easy to imagine listeners hearing their own experiences mirrored in her words: the difficulty of moving past someone you loved, the tension of holding on too long, the quiet bravery of stepping away.
Ultimately, “Learn to Let Go” is as much about Carrie Ryan’s artistic release as it is about the song’s narrative theme. It captures an artist letting go of the constraints of genre, the safety of formula, and even the comfort of old working methods, embracing instead vulnerability, virtual collaboration, and a darker, moodier sound. The result is a single that lingers long after its final notes fade—haunting, resonant, and quietly transformative.
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