Album Review: Exes’ The Art Of Saying Goodbye Is Cotton Candied Love
Venice duo exes have created what I call cotton candy pop music in their new record The Art of Saying Goodbye. While many artists aim for bubblegum sounds, this duo desires “cotton-y” rhythms. The difference is that bubblegum pop feels chewable in its sonics, while “cotton candy” pop swirls in your musical tastes. They both offer sugared sensibilities, but cotton candy is warmer in its sweetened details. Thus, while both form of the pop genre describe love, “cotton” candy shows the intricacy of this virtue even more.
Exes are all about intricacy and intimacy. In the same way, cotton candy is swirled, gathered, and woven to form a delectable treat, for exes, so is love. The musical resonating comparison is innovative and intriguing. Love is the sweetest thing you will ever taste in your life but like cotton candy it takes a lot of rounds till it feels formed and edible. Hence, Exes uses their swirling rhythms to describe the amount of effort and emotional investment it takes to work up to a relationship status that feels worth the entrance of love. While many songs focus on love’s foundation, Exes focuses on the building of such a pedestal.
Being in a relationship is work but Exes, despite their name, show that work can be fun, must be wise, and always remain thoughtful to one’s being, even if they are beginning or breaking a relationship. For the duo, self-love is a key to a relationship one, which explains why they mutually evolve from and with each other. You would not realize the insightfulness of their music if Allie McDonald did not have such a pink and plush voice. To continue with my “cotton candy” analogy, when you look at this favorite snack it is the gathering of pink sugar crystals to which Allie’s voice is like the candy crystals of love. She exhumes the lolly sense of love with her clear and airy vocal annotations on the loveliness of love. After all, it is a wonderful emotion to feel.
While the synthetic notes of this record feel like the wispy grains of sugar that join to form strands of cotton candy, in exes’ case, the duo never fail to realize both, vocally and rhythmically, that love is a pleasure. For however sad or struggling, Love can leave us, something inside our hearts makes sure we never give up on its power. Even when it lets us down, everyone knows that’s the only way to feel lifted again is through a better love. Exes makes music to that fact. For more information on Exes click and To Buy The Art of Saying Goodbye Click Here.
Favorite Tracks:
Twentythousand: Allie McDonald’s voice embodies anybody whom has fallen under love’s spell. When you fall for someone it is like being happily captured and captivated by a unknown power. You let yourself be taken and trust where ithis euphoric feeling will take you is Heaven. twentythousand is about that moment love’s army conquers the kingdom of your heart. Bells and bright keys ring throughout the song to symbolize the entrance Love makes when it takes over your spirit.
Sherman Oaks: McDonald’s voice compared to twentythousand is mature in this track , along with its rhythms. This makes sense as the song is about recognizing that your partner is not invested in the relationship as much as or in the ways you desire and need. Thus, McDonald’s Voice carries a firmness and wisdom that this realization gives a spirit. It is not easy to recognize that’s someone you love is not going to meet your expectations on how you should be loved, but it is more difficult to realize that you cannot accept their inability to reach for them. With a heavy bassline, weighted synthetic notes, and a burdened heart such a harsh recognition is made reality through “Sherman Oaks”.
Like You: is all about the sound. Although I’ve already stated my admiration for McDonald’s voice and her ability to be open in her confrontations with love’s blinding magic, this song rises because of its club-noir frequencies, It makes you dance to the mystery and magic of liking someone which can be, at times, as important as loving them
