At the age of fifteen, I was riding my bike around the estate, pretending to smoke, listening to ‘Vienna’ by Ultravox on repeat and building dens in the woods. At the same age, Bella Sheilds is writing beautiful and powerful pop songs about unrequited love. What was I doing with my life? But at least I now get to write about her exquisite single; that’s something.
‘One Wish’ is more than your average pop song; it ticks all the right boxes, doing so more easily and effortlessly than most of the competition, but it goes way beyond mere box-ticking. It is emotionally mature, musing on the ideas of love, loss, and longing, and it is musically powerful, taking the acoustic-pop ballad into some awesome, anthemic places. It is bigger; it goes deeper; it is sonically broader, more elegantly woven, more eloquently delivered, and her vocal is far above what is required of pop; it is confident, controlled, expansive and emotionally cinematic.
Three singles in, and this Dublin artist has already got to a creative level that many artists twice her age can only dream of. But I will add that, while she is making amazing music, has mastered piano, guitar, cello, saxophone, drums, and bass, and obviously has a long career in music ahead of her, can she build a decent den in the woods? Actually, she’s probably great at that too.
