Debuts can be difficult sometimes, and it’s always hard to gauge how to judge a new artist from their first offering to the world. Luckily, this isn’t a problem with Harlow Reign and her new self–titled EP. Technically, Harlow has actually been performing since the very young age of three, but she’s finally breaking out of her shell and releasing her own music and doing things her own way, much to her credit.
By Jane Howkins.
There are just five songs on this EP, yet each one leads into the other, with the record consisting of a collection of songs written at various times of Harlow’s life. However, despite this, each track complements the next in some way, almost bringing things full circle by the end. It starts out with a wonderful opener Wasted Time, which sets the dark atmosphere from the start. Harlow’s vocals are strong yet never overused, rising up higher on the catchy chorus. The music is simple yet effective, with some pretty piano chords backing up the vocals.
One More Night is similar in some ways, still featuring the piano as the primary instrument, yet it has a much more poppy vibe to it than Wasted Time. It’s certainly a more upbeat song musically, but lyrically it’s a little bittersweet, carrying the emotion throughout. It’s ever so slightly punchier, leading nicely into All You Need, which offers another welcome change of pace. The musical arrangements are much more slowed down, allowing the piano to really shine through, although the electronic drums do occasionally get a little distracting at times. However, the vulnerable lyrics and vocal style more than make up for this.
Take Me Away is a firm, firm favourite of mine and a must listen. It starts out extremely slowly, pacing the music well until the chorus kicks in with an explosion of noise, before dropping back down again slightly on the next verse. The dynamics and pacing are well timed with the music to leave a truly lasting impression. Save Me Now is another banger and an amazing song to close the EP on as a whole. The chord progression is simple but is lovely – towards the end as the pacing and atmosphere picks up, it gets really beautiful, showing just how amazing Harlow’s songwriting skills are – you can really hear the Evanescence influence too.
As I said at the start of this review, debut releases can be difficult. But on her self-titled debut, Harlow Reign has clearly declared her place within the musical landscape, and I’m really excited to see what the future holds for her.
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