Sixteen-year-old singer-songwriter Ava Valianti captures how nostalgia works when you are just starting to grow up and realize the bittersweet ways in which memory and growing up works in her poignant track “Running on Empty” from her debut EP petunias. At this age, already turning the personal into the universal, Ava once again channels her raw introspection into an intimate and timeless song. The petunias EP, themed around ordinary beauty and emotional growth, finds its most wistful moment here, in a late-night reflection on friendship, memory, and the soft exhaustion of growing up.
The song opens with tender, understated and reflective guitar strums. In this authentic aural translucency, Ava’s tender voice enters gently. There’s so much delicacy, richness and emotion in her voice, while lacking the high pitch you see in teenage singers that you wouldn’t realize she’s only 16. It’s just pure, earnest storytelling as she brings warmth and vulnerability in the lyricism.
As the verses unfold, Ava demonstrates vivid vignettes of her past with sleepovers in purple pajamas, childhood tents under the cover of stars, and fleeting crushes that linger in memory. The lyrics are simple yet poetically mature, meditate on the passage of time and emotional distance. She sings, “How do the people we love / become people we know / become people we forget?” in the chorus. It’s a question that lands heavy in its universality, softened by the melodic comfort of her voice.
Gradually, the production deepens with light percussion and layered harmonies that swirl around the chorus, echoing the exhaustion and longing in “I hope you don’t regret me / I’m running on empty.” By the time the refrain fades, listeners are left suspended between melancholy and peace, much like the tender limbo of adolescence itself.
With “Running on Empty,” Ava Valianti turns honesty and the reality of connection just as profound as any grand anthem.
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Review by: Naomi Joan