Album Review: Emily King Takes You Through The “Scenery” of Love
Emily King’s Scenery is an affirmation that she is a talent to behold. The record is a stride through everything we love about her sound; its capacity to make pop feel like a batch of daisies stemmed with jazz, a voice that bulbs like lights turning on the tallest skyscraper, and lyrics that sweetly note what you need from your lover.
Emily King’s song can be divided between two themes. The first is wonder. From “Look At Me Now” to “Marigold,” she sings to the power of looking at what you have with fresh eyes. It is as if she treats either herself or her lover like she has discovered a box of all her childhood memories and is smiling at realizing how good she has had it. The next theme is self-defense. From “Teach You” to “Running,” she sings to the need to either tell/demand from yourself or your partner what is needed for the relationship to survive. Emily King has an innate capacity to make self-care and self-protection feel like then necessities they are. Even when you are with someone, you still must always have your back.
“Forgiveness,” “Can’t Hold Me,” and “Blue Light” are graceful odes to how important it is to always have a listening ear to your heart’s desires. Vocally, Emily King is untouchable. She is so unique that in a lineup of a billion singers, I swear, no one would come close to sounding like her. Her smoky vocality ambers every lyric as if it were the glistening, gold thoughts that swirl through your mind as you try to figure what is romance. Moreover, whether she is sonically bopping like her radio jam, “Remind Me,” or giving a tender, electro R&B ballad, “2nd Guess,” she always feels consistently thoughtful. In addition, she always uses “you” to speak to her song’s love.
I can’t recall when Emily used she or he or any other pronouns to specify the gender of her partner in a song. She always sings, “You!” Yet, what is special about this is not only that she goes above gender, but she gets completely and simply intimate with YOU: the listener. By the end of “Caliche” or “Go Back,” you are wondering if YOU are the one that has tried to stop Emily from her dreams or needs to step up how you express your love for her. It is a subtle, psychological trick that especially icks in when you sing her songs out loud and feel like you are breaking up or starting over with this “invisible” lover that is only known as YOU. This particular, rhetorical move allows Scenery to truly be a scenic record through the many pastures of love. For More Information On Emily King And To Buy Scenery February 1 Click Here.
