Cohesiveness is a problem. In cooking one taste can overwhelm a dish and in music, too many concepts can spoil the magic.
However generally sudden combos are what make it work, corresponding to peanut butter and bacon.
And in “So In My Head” there stands an EP the place a wild menagerie of concepts comes collectively to make one thing dynamic and vibrant.
Throughout 5 distinctive tracks, it explores the core theme of the jumble of the thoughts and does so by that includes 9 extremely gifted artists.
“So In My Head” is the brainchild of Heather Choate Davis, working underneath the identify “Sophia Streams”. After discovering religion on the age of 33, she has skilled what she calls “seasons”. Completely different components of her life, every devoted to one thing new, be it parenting, writing, serving to others or music.
As Sophia Streams, she has introduced collectively a “lovely, gracious, multi-generational household” of artists and in doing so, painted an EP that would really feel like a compilation of multi-genre one-offs however as a substitute, comes collectively to color a symbiotic story.
All of it begins with the dance-centric bop, “Chasing The Second Hand”
Chasing the second hand to tomorrowland
The place’d I depart that thought? By no means thoughts, I bought it
Keep in mind season 5, episode three of The Simpsons? The place Homer sees a squirrel and runs after it? In all probability not. However the chances are high that we’ve all had these “Oh squirrel!” moments, the place we chase some random concepts.
In her lyrics, she juxtaposes the clear and apparent imagery of the clock with the chaos of an inside monologue. It’s poetically distracted songwriting.
With Colby Key’s Stevie Knicks-esque vocals, and that happy-go-lucky dance beat, the EP opener units the tone for a Robyn-style dance-centric assortment.
However then comes the primary of many turns.
The lighters might need been changed by cell telephones however our urge for food for an anthem stays unchanged. As “Dioramas within the Rain” joins the variability present, we go from a bouncy tune to a feelsy trendy folk-pop anthem, good for followers of Swift, Rodrigo or Sheeran.
Pushed by the crystal clear vocals of Hannah Rost, and a tactile acoustic guitar, this music morphs like a diorama would when moist.
The rug was pulled, now my entire life has modified
A second of sudden and irreversible transformation.
I’m not a lady
Whether or not that’s a optimistic change is for us to determine. However all of us change, all of us develop and in her Sophia Streams challenge, Heather Choate Davis faucets into that inevitable metamorphosis.
The following left flip is probably the least acute but it surely brings in regards to the music with my favourite imagery.
As somebody with lots of vitality, lots of concepts and a inclined to lots of distractions, I’ve all the time mentioned my head is sort of a shed; stuffed with garbage. In “Thoughts Like An Airbnb” we get a way more nuanced exploration of the jumble inside our cranium, with extra of a deal with the negativity that usually resides there.
Inform me who had been you connecting to–cuz it positive wasn’t me
Time to get this coronary heart of mine out of hospitality
The dangerous feeling is confronted on the music’s finish. Nick Taylor joins the celebration for vocal duties and helps usher in a realization of a wanted change.
What additionally makes this music fascinating is the very intentional manufacturing selections. It’s a bar tune by design and that very same bar is audible within the background seamlessly forming a part of the music.
Ought to the bar get a writing credit score?
The penultimate style hop comes within the form of “Helter Skelter Man”, an “R&B prophecy” in regards to the value of fame.
Gonna tune your soul…to bop for fame
Blake Flattley, singing with the identical grit you’d count on of the late, nice Mark Lanegan, delivers traces that poke holes within the dream of stardom.
His manufacturing additionally helps the music construct to an enormous crescendo, which leads completely into the EP’s introspective and mellow climax.
The place “So In My Head” explores chaos, its remaining music, “River of Love” seems to flip the agenda.
I’m so bored with being flawed
A powerful opening and a mission assertion for a piano lounge ballad. The music paints an image of stale smoke and a silent transfixed crowd. Madison Youch’s vocals are probably the strongest on the EP and create a agency stamp of positivity in a style that usually offers off morose and blues-infested vibes.
However a powerful opening assertion wants a agency end and that’s what we get.
Down by the River of Love
The place I don’t want….to do higher
On this full cease, we get a second of self-kindness and a realisation that doing the perfect one can is all one can do. We additionally get a spot of peace, and if we will all discover that, be it via religion, household or associates, we’d simply be capable of quieten the thoughts just a little bit.
It appears although, that in “So In My Head”, Heather Choate Davis, as Sophia Streams, has discovered that trifecta of F’s.
By collaborating with associates, who’ve turn out to be a surrogate household, linked by religion and a love for music, she has cast an EP that is sensible of the chaos of the thoughts by leaning into an nearly hectic smorgasbord of influences.
She’s discovered components from completely different pages of the recipe guide and made them match and if her subsequent “season” is as a chef, I’m all for it.
