Pop music has a broad brief. For every lowest-common-denominator, off-the-shelf, slice of landfill-bound pop pap, there is an equal number of artists who are trying to do something new with the form, who think outside the musical box, who are taking the basic tenets of the genre, namely groove, and accessibility, and blending them with elements found far beyond pop’s shores.
magenta is just such an artist, and Angel, her latest EP, is the sound of pop music made by someone with a greater sonic vision than most. Across four tracks, she navigates through thoughts and feelings of love and longing, and cleverly, the songs seem to step up from one to the next, turning up the heat and raising the benchmark as we move through it.
“your love is real” wanders some ambient soundscapes before solidifying the beat, but even then, the feeling of ethereality is never lost, and “mexico” blends neo-soul finesse with alt-pop accessibility. “i need her heart” conforms perhaps to a more familiar pop form, but even then it errs more towards the sound of, say, Kate Bush than Katy Perry.
Perhaps leaving the best till last, and given the beauty of what has gone before, that says a lot, “don’t mess with her hope” is a blend of drifting soundscape and spoken word, heavenly vocals, and sonic delicacy.
Angel is a diary of her own thoughts and feelings relating to the first, often overwhelming emotions that come with starting a new relationship. Although that makes it a very personal account, nothing here is not brilliantly relatable to everyone, no matter their age, gender, geography, culture or outlook on life. We are, after all, all human.
