So let’s have a listen …

Ferrari’s new single “Smooth Sailing” starts with a drum fill into the song with backing vocals and horns. This is a song about being younger (23) and how it was “smooth sailing for me.” I like how the song adds a pre-chorus before the second chorus and the bridge that follows. I can hear an electric lead guitar joining in the fray, complementing the horns.

Then, all of the sudden a Hammond B-3 joins in. The song rocks between “I was 23” and “it was smooth sailing for me” until the end of the track. Ferrari has a very nice voice and it makes the song a pleasure to listen to. The only downside I see is that the song sounds like a 1950s nostalgia track.

SCORE/Excellent: John Michael Ferrari’s new single “Smooth Sailing” has a very 50s nostalgia feel. Excellent performances and production, including horns and a B-3. A well-written song. Give it a listen. Much love, Beth

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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Blending pop and reggae influences with sleek modern production, the song is polished and radio-ready. The repeated refrain of “kiss me again” works as the perfect hook, simple, memorable, and irresistibly catchy. While its structure leans on repetition, this only amplifies its sing-along quality, making it an easy favourite for playlists and live sets alike.

Chelle’s attention to detail shines through in the song’s mix and arrangement: the percussion is crisp, the bassline grooves naturally, and her vocals are layered with warmth and clarity. Fans of artists like Dua Lipa, RAYE, and Jessie Ware will appreciate the balance of rhythm and emotion that Chelle brings to her music.

With “Kiss Me Again,” Chelle confidently steps into the spotlight, offering a fresh, feel-good sound that bridges pop sensibility and reggae rhythm. It’s an infectious debut that not only lingers in your head but also hints at the exciting versatility she’ll bring to her future releases.

SCORE / Excellent – Chelle’s ability to merge infectious pop hooks with the laid-back pulse of reggae gives “Kiss Me Again” a distinctive edge that feels both familiar and refreshingly new. It’s a confident and captivating debut that showcases her artistry, charisma, and potential to become a standout voice in the evolving pop landscape. If this single is any indication, Chelle is just getting started, and her next releases are well worth watching out for.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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We’re over two months away from Christmas, so this is a case of ‘Christmas come early’. The single is an interplay between two Christmases: this Christmas and the previous one, where the lyrical persona gave their heart to a lover, only to have that heart given away. This time around, they want to save themselves from the tears and give their heart to someone special.

So while this song plays around the Christmas theme, it’s also a love song. The electronic song starts with the sound that makes up the majority of the beat: a heavy, throbbing kick. The kick plays for about 16 seconds before Craymo’s deep-ish vocals kick in. The chorus, ‘Last Christmas, I gave you my heart…’, is delivered over the kick that’s disappeared.

Craymo’s lyrics follow the compound phrasing technique: in that they are longer lines, rather than shorter or fragmented lines. So he delivers two long lines, then the kick returns and Craymo begins again with the hook, ‘Last Christmas…’.

Mostly his delivery is speech-like. However, there are times he raises his voice and soars in almost a falsetto pitch.

This is a song full of introspection and intention-making. Earlier we talked about how it’s a love song about a lover bemoaning their heart being given away, but the lyrics then complicates things. Craymo sings about keeping his distance, having being bitten once, and now twice shy, but still he sings about the old lover still catching his eye. There’s use of rhymes, but the complex part is that they are still not detached from their old lover.

The persona has been a fool, we hear, with the lover being portrayed as someone who would fool them again. In a word, the lover is portrayed in a negative light: they tore the persona apart, and they have a ‘soul of ice’.

Although Craymo’s lyrics are dense and repetitive, there are moments where he just lets the beat play.

Whereas the lyrical persona says they’ve found real love this time, they seem to be unsure – or at least they confuse the listener – when they say that ‘maybe next year I’ll give it to someone special’.

The questions I ask myself are: ‘Weren’t they saying they’ll give their heart to someone else? And aren’t they now saying “maybe”?’ 

Vocally, there’s also some humming that goes like ‘oooooh!’

SCORE/Excellent: I’m a sucker for fat beats, so while there’s nothing innovative about the instrumentation on ‘Last Christmas’, I can’t help but have soft feelings for it. Craymo’s lyrics are lengthy, and this perhaps shows that he’s a person who loves writing. His lyrical persona comes across as an unreliable narrator, and I know that people tend to value the literariness of unreliable narrators. Whether unreliable narrators are really a nice concept, I’m not really sure. But at least Craymo’s song here doesn’t leave us with a neat resolution: we are never sure whether his lyrical persona is over their old lover, and we are never sure whether they’re giving their heart to someone special. I also have to remark on the humming: songs are perhaps good or bad, but with the humming I hear on ‘Last Christmas’, I take it that Craymo enjoys singing. For that, I certify his single as ‘excellent’.

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The lore of Elevated Focusion is quite distinct. It was the name of an all-instrumental album the artist released under the name ‘Jonny Rythmns’ in 2022. It then caught on, and became the name chosen for his new era of music in 2023, collaborating with musicians worldwide and adding vocals to tracks for the first time.

Elevated Focusion draws inspiration from their own life experiences within the vibrant kaleidoscope of what defines NYC, with the intent to elevate that NY state of mind reaching out to various corners of the globe. At the end of the day, the artist’s bottom line is to enhance our appreciation of the world through an experimental fusion of eclectic music that spans many genres.

In this instance, he has come up with the album ‘Space Dance’, described as an eclectic electronic space pop concept album influenced by popular music within the zeitgeist of the 80s and 90s. He is not claiming to have reinvented the wheel with these songs, but rather, create something unique with parts that are loved and familiar.

The first track, ‘Space Station Bugout’, comes in pretty strong with a fairly well-mastered blend between the strong basses of the 80s and a bit of acid as well. It has a very delectable dark theme from the timbre and the pads used within the song and actually is quite satisfying to listen to, but the voice in the track detracts from the potential of the track. It’s subjective though, and I don’t think the vocals fit this particular track. Otherwise, it’s very well-executed, almost reminding you of a darker version of ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer. A great use of synthesis.

The tracks afterwards follow that trend of a deeper, bass-heavy synthesis, with a dark chord progression. In the track ‘Drugs and Outerspace’, it gives me more of a 90s trip-hop and eclectic feel, putting you in the mind of Massive Attack and some of David Bowie’s 90s experimental work. It has a ‘mantra’ feel to it, with a bit of motivic variation, but I think this track puts the lyrics more to the front. In terms of production I think it’s decent. The saxophone/woodwinds really help to elevate the track and give it the oomph it needs, once again, the vocals aren’t really what do it for me. I think the track has decent presence by itself.

‘Raving on That Galactic High’ rides on the hyperpop aesthetics of the 80s, with filtered synths and a specific percussive beat that’s reminiscent of certain drum machines, with bits of disco. I think in this case the vocals do match the instrumentation and help to bring it out quite well. It’s unique to me how even though this track does not specifically sound ‘darker’ compared to the rest, it still has Elevated Focusion’s unique touch to it with enough techniques to not make the sound monotonous at all. It’s very dreamy.

Afterwards, ‘I Dream of Eden’ almost sounds like a modern take on some of Tears for Fears’ anthemic songs, with a slight technological and bubbly feel. It has a more anthemic feel to it. However, ‘Space Dance’ which follows it definitely does it for me in terms of the instrumental. It feels like as if it’s meant to take you to a different dimension, with the way the production and chord structure goes. It’s a wonderful sea of various synthesis techniques, and it’s all so encompassing that my brain doesn’t even consider the vocals (it doesn’t necessarily clash, but the production is just that good.) It even adds a bit of that Kraftwerk-esque 80s percussion at the end, with hip-hop elements at the end.

‘Cosmic Abstractions’, which follow suit, makes me feel conflicted. I don’t think the vocal style in this track does justice to the wonderfully dark soundscape until the vocals are used as an effect with the gate effect. It starts off synthpop, and then the vox effects used reminds me of some of Art of Noise’s compositional techniques. The percussion is delicately crafted to draw you in, and when the pads come in, the track almost reminds me of a lot of Wolfsheim’s mid-00s work. It’s very engaging and thought-provoking. I just wish a filter was put on the main vocals to match the feel of the rest of the track. It also possesses a high amount of motivic variation, with the percussion changing towards the end of the track, reminding me of the way A.R. Rahman used to fuse technologically forward sounds with slight ‘ethnic’ breaks in the middle.

‘Planetary Abstraction’ then enters the soundscape, with an early 80s late 70s feel in terms of the synthesis used. It is very early Kraftwerk. The synthesis used in this track feels very ‘horizontally’ and all-encompassing, and I think some people would dig the delivery of the vocals. I’m not particularly crazy over it, but it does remind me a bit of Siouxsie and the Banshees. This is then continued with ‘Space Rider’, which comes in with a mysterious and subversive syncopation paired with the vocals. It is initially quite simple, but the synthesizers and the pads used within the track simply elevate it beyond its means. At the 1:38 mark, that’s when the track truly shines. It’s dramatic, it’s technological, it’s just amazing.

This album truly has something for everyone, with ‘Unfamiliar Eyes’ taking you on a technologically-souped up version of edgier, anthemic rock tracks- maybe even glam rock to a degree. It kind of puts me in the mind of an improved version of Linkin Park, which is quite interesting. The guitar solo and melodic lines are the star of the show, and the vocals within this track is good. The album finishes with ‘Haunting Feeling’, a darkwave track that puts you in the mind of Marilyn Manson-meets-Bauhaus. It’s definitely interesting, with the slight choral synthesizers in the background.

I’m unsure if these vocals are AI-generated or sung by humans, as the vocalists are not credited within the tracks, so I’d also like to remind artists to disclose if it is or not in these times where AI and reality is certainly blurred. This is not a jab at the artist at all, just an observation.

All in all, this album was a very interesting album to listen to with a large capacity for deep emotions and compositional intent through the richness of the production and the musical intent. In a lot of these tracks, there’s a lot of musical potential being displayed but in my ears the addition of vocals make it quite unnecessary. In fact, I strongly suggest Elevated Focusion to perhaps release an ‘instrumental-only’ version of this album, for people like me who are quite impressed by him from a production and compositional standpoint.

Even though he claims not to have reinvented the wheel with these songs, I definitely would say that he kind of has. They all have an edge to them that is unique and not like most people that take inspiration from that era of music and compose something that is extremely predictable and commercial. That itself, is an achievement.

Score/Excellent: ‘Space Dance’ is an extremely unique take on an artist that has evidently taken inspiration from sounds and music production techniques from the 80s and 90s, reimagining it with his signature ‘dark edge’ when it comes to music with excellent and ultra-engaging soundscapes, definitely drawing you in as a listener.

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Lyrically, the song gives away its theme by its title and the repetition of the singing, ‘No fear! No fear!’. As our lyrical persona addresses themselves, we hear:

‘I wanna be free to be me with no apology for living the way I can’.

That’s clarity right there, although at times you have to play close attention to the lyrics to get them.

Up next is ‘The Ruins of Us’. This is romantic or heartbreak song. Thinking about the good times in their relationship, our lyrical persona here seems not to accept that their partner is no longer in the picture. They put to them some questions, badgering them really. It’s a sad song at the end of the day, the story of a character who believes perhaps that they still have a chance. Instrumentally, the drumming seems to be inspired here.

There’s some percussion and piano on ‘Falling’, the drumming giving me a marching band feel. Thematically, the song also deals with the memory of a changed relationship. Vocally, Lucas Redding starts half singing, shifting the intensity as he goes.

‘Beautiful Pride’, starts with the piano, the sound however taken over by drums. Vocally, there’s no intensity like on the previous song. Instead, we are started off with a bassy vocal rendition. But if we all been seeing a lyrical persona hit hard by love, on this song they talk about having a beautiful ride, them never having thought they’d know how it feels to fall in love at first sight. But enters this lover and the feeling comes true. This song speaks about the power of love. Lyrically, Lucas Redding is playful – singing about ‘emotional tsunamis’!

Drums are even more prominent on ‘Word Around Town is The…’. The instrumentation and vocalization are playful, but lyrically, Lucas Redding deals with a serious relationship issue. Facts have to be faced unless they want to stay trapped in their walls.

Piano, drums and string appear on ‘Disappear’. However it’s the piano that takes the cake for me. There’s something soulful, if not melancholic, about it. The overall sound however being whimsical. Lyrically, Lucas Redding here is poetic. For example, we hear of the sky embracing the dust.

Then comes ‘The Words I’ll Never Say’. The song has Lucas Redding’s typical orchestral rock sound. A brief whimsical piano come through. Here Lucas Redding sings sweetly on a song that lends itself to abstract lyricism.

The rock sound is more prominent on ‘Say The Word’. The crunchy guitar is in full play here. For me, it’s the star of the show, and Lucas Redding twists the sounds in a variety of ways. This is a song I could listen to just for the guitar. Lyrically, the persona of this song says that if the other person does not want them, they should just say the word. You can say that the story is about the character being ready to leave a relationship. 

‘Justified’ comes up next. The lyrical persona here reveals to their offender that taking them for a game makes them go crazy. The bass is heavy and you get a variety of instruments on the song – from strings to the drum.

Up next is ‘The Best Times’. Violin starts us off, and is then followed by a throbbing drum beat. Crunchy guitar and bagpipe also come through. Lyrically, the song’s persona speaks of the daydreams they were in with this other person – a beautiful ride; times, they say, they would hold on to the rest of their lives. Lucas Redding’s vocals are sometimes intense here, but sometimes the throbbing beat gives in a little to decelerating sounds.

‘Numb’ follows. With vocals over piano, Lucas Redding here goes in a different direction, although drums appear later. This then gives the song a heavy feel to it. Lyrically, when it’s just voice and piano, you can hear Lucas Redding clearly sing, ‘I always thought that you and I were meant to be something to last for all eternity. I should have known it was too good for me’.

You get strings and drums on ‘Dusk-Lit Lake’, but the instrumentation fades away, producing an understated sound. This allows one to focus on the clean vocals. Here the lyrical persona reveals to their addressee that they have never felt closer to them more than they were standing closer by the water. But it’s not a happy-going story since they talk no more, drifting away.

‘The Finale’ closes off the album. The piano starts us off, but later on we have drums coming in. Our character here opens their heart for love – but they open it only a bit. Moreover, they are not to go through wars, as long, they say, they’ll meet the other person in ‘the finale’. He song ends with an orchestral flourish or echo – perhaps fitting for n orchestral project.  

SCORE/Excellent: Although there’s the piano here and there, Lucas Redding sticks mostly to his orchestral rock sound. I find this commendable. If you’re in the mood for mostly rock, then this ought to be pleasing. But on a bad day, you might find yourself criticizing the album for being monotonous.     

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According to the artist, “This soul pop song was written in homage to the soul pop singers of the 80’s like Martin Fry, Paul Young, George Michael and Tony Hadley.” “Tear Me Apart” won Best Pop Song and Vocal in the Fall 2025 Clouzine International Music Awards and was nominated Best Pop Song and Best Pop Artist in the 2025 Indie Music Channel Awards in Los Angeles, CA.Craymo is currently pitching his music to film and TV.

So let’s have a listen …

Starts with an electro beat and keyboards, the vocals come soaring over the top of the mix. A song about breaking up. The vocals and arrangement suddenly change to something more straightforward, then we’re back to the verse, sounding like the start of the song again. The track sort of reminds me of Flashdance, but with a male vocal reminiscent of 80s Flock of Seagulls. A bit of a bridge, then back into the main chorus of the piece. The song is definitely a dance-pop tune meant to make your ass boogie.

SCORE/Good: Craymo delivers a dance-pop tune, full of fun, with “Tear Me Apart”. I can hear this track in a gay/dance club, which is a good thing. The arrangement is interesting, and the production is nice. Have a listen for yourself and maybe you’ll be dancing too. Much love, Beth

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Coming from a place called ‘Mission’ in the United States, she is influenced by a variety of people. The core basis seems to be her family members, especially their musical prowess exemplified by her grandmother having songwriting credits for Minnie Riperton and her uncles Eugene & Rene jamming in Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, it has come to my attention that…. some of this information may not necessarily be credible. It is stated on Amara-Fe’s biography write-up that she is from Mission, Texas, but on Instagram, it states that she is in Dallas, Texas. Perhaps her talent has given her some sort of spatial superposition.

In some wonderful fusion of neural networks, information paradox and music, she too, desires to take the virtual stage with her debut album titled ‘Reborn’, released on August 9th 2025. This release aims to be a testament to a projection of an artist with unwavering commitment in terms of artistically converting experiences and observations into soulful melodies. I have to wonder, is this truly a real person?

The album, ‘SHIFT’ is here.

The first track, ‘Eyes on Me’, gives you pretty much a good introduction of what the album will consist of. Warning, some foreshadowing ahead- repetition. It is your standard pop track filled with robotic sass, taking strides from artists like Taylor Swift in 2014, Meghan Trainor around the same era, perhaps with a little bit of Iggy Azalea mixed in. It is extremely generic, with no real musical quirk or uniqueness to it. It is meant for the commercial ear, to fulfil a simple aim of ‘music’s here to give you a ‘vibe’.’ It’s well-mastered, but I think it’s quite hard to make a non-organic track badly mastered, don’t you think?

The tracks afterwards follow the exact same compositional format. Overly zealous synth chops with percussive syncopation that would definitely appeal someone who’s used to Ariana Grande’s artistry without any form of vocal distinctiveness. It’s just here to be your run-of-the-mill pop music. At some point, even if the ‘artist’ or really prompt generator behind the track wants the general public to be on board, they’ll (and they are) doing a pretty good job rehashing specific pop tracks from the years 2014 to 2018 specifically to the uncritical ear. Boisterous, annoying, upbeat, with a ‘necessary’ urban kick with one measure to seem cool to the audience, how much better can this be?

I’m not joking when I say the tracks on this release are utterly similar. Even different segments of a classical composition have more variation than this. By the fifth track, ‘Ride for Me’, there’s really no new compositional technique for me to rave about. It’s a feminized version of Macklemore’s one-hit wonder. By the sixth track, ‘Whole vibe’, maybe it changes a little bit from the emotional tone of the first few stanzas, but it turns into the same K-Pop Demon Hunters format it adopts. Dare I say, almost… annoying.

If you want some sort of variation, perhaps the seventh track ‘Call me Out’ may give it to you. It has an acoustic, slightly Latin-esque and dynamic vibe to it, with the same ostentatious vocals. I’ll spare you, the reader, the rigour of having to wax lyrical consistently for all tracks within this release. It is extremely flat and has no real charm to it. It’s commercial. It’s meant for an American ‘Target’ ad. I don’t know how else I could make it clearer to you. Potentially, I think this whole work was generated with AI. I know the ‘artist’ (rather, ‘artist manager’) behind this record may dispute this claim but I will not back down from this claim unless proof is given without manipulation. The songs are too generic and repetitive to be real.

The proof I have for this is the fact that when you look at the songwriters for this album, a lot of the tracks are ascribed to the titular ‘Amara-Fe’, and another individual named… possibly the owner of the ‘record label’, named ‘KINGBYDESIGN’.

When you look up this record label, it leads you to writing credits to another ‘artist’,

‘Vanessa Marie King’, another individual who also possibly does not exist. One AI-generated artist to cater to the Pop and Black market, and another AI-generated artist to cater to the Hispanic market. Both bearing ‘female’ identities, carved and generated by a singular man, without declaring that any of these pieces of music are AI-generated to the general public.

Beyond the lacklustre music within the release that this review had to cover, isn’t it generally suspicious that a man is making use of female identities in the form of ‘artists’ and doing a horrible job at that? If one had AI to supplement the composition of music, why can’t it be as superior as the music that have gained the ‘Outstanding’ or the ‘Excellent’ rating on Music Review World? Why does it have to sound extremely commercial, monotonous and severely lacking in motivic variation? There is a way to make decent music with AI, and this is not an example of it.

And with that, I hope ‘Amara-Fe’ takes some pointers for improvement beyond the release of ‘Shift’, to make music that isn’t so generic sounding and void of character. Perhaps, it is best to add a bit of humanization to an algorithm- or use the algorithm to compose, like Iannis Xenakis. If you have a soft spot for tracks that tend to be on the top 40 playlist of the average millennial’s Spotify rotation, this album is definitely for you.

SCORE/Good: ‘Shift’ by Amara-Fe is a wonderful album that lacks motivic variation, best for those who really enjoy the popular music trends characterizing the top 40 charts within the years of 2013 to 2018. If you missed the schtick that Meghan Trainor used to ride to fame, this album is filled with the best ‘I told you so’ sassiness best reserved for the backing track of a rom-com film. It definitely has general appeal, and could do well with some humanization.

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The single starts with some low energy guitar chords, with the guitar soon joined by an almost buzzing electronic sound. Then comes a brief and quick heavy drum rhythm which, when all instruments itself included, sees the lady singer introduce the vocals. For those brief seconds, it’s just her voice, the instruments having disappeared. This is impressive as it plays with the listener – or transports them to different worlds sonically. Another impressive thing being that the sound of the vocals and the instrumentation that came before is clean.

The instruments, however, return after the introduction of the vocalist. Thanks to its drums, the single produces an upbeat feeling to the listener. The drums – or bass – gets heavier, and you also get those computer glitch or video game sounds which lend the song to EDM. Here, however, the lyrics drown under the heavy sound. 

‘I’m missing what I lost’, I hear. Her weapons have destroyed what she owns.

SCORE/Good: This single is saved by two things: the beautiful vocals and clean, snazzy fat beat. I think it should be safe to say that the artists should refine their lyrics. They already have the voices as well as snazzy beats. I cannot wait to hear more of their music.

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The artist with this mission is none other than Kat Button, who has waited 17 years to release a concept album about mental health recovery from a personal perspective. The release of her album was delayed due to personal triggers, but the album titled ‘Refocus’ was finally released on September 19.

Refocus serves as a musical storybook with the songs marking themselves as different pages of the journey. The tracks talk about the reality of OCD, anxiety, overthinking (especially at night) and a desire to get better.

CBT also serves as a standout track from the album. CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a way to help others learn how to manage their neurological afflictions, and in this case, helping Kat Button to manage her OCD in a conducive manner. With that, she learned how to refocus her mind, recover and enjoy life again.

The rest of the album discusses self-care, community, rest and relaxation time. These things together with CBT all help with managing symptoms as and when they arise.

One thing that definitely surprised me about this album is how well mastered the instrumentals actually are. The introductory track, ‘Begging You To Go’ has a very interesting timbre with multiple melodic sequences intertwined within its structure, giving a feel of a clean and eclectic soundscape. It almost sounds like as if it stands in the intersection of Enya, hip-hop and Kat’s own uniqueness. It’s quite fascinating to listen to.

The tracks within the album definitely switch their theme based on the lyrical content of each song and the concept embedded into it. Songs like ‘Anxiety Strikes’ and ‘Chasing My Breakthrough’ based on the title have a bit more of a German industrial techno feel, and I definitely hear a bit of a ‘Wolfsheim’ influence in it. It’s dynamic, with the artist’s semi-operatic vocals providing the track with its emotional propensity, colouring the otherwise cold feel of the instrumental. Once again, the instrumental is very well-mastered and composed. If anything, Kat Button is a great producer without any doubt.

There’s various emotions locked into the tapestry of this album, with tracks like ‘Alone With My Mind’ providing the listener with a more stripped-down and personal, raw look on her own struggles dealing with the trajectory of her mind. It differs from the soundscapes previously presented, which adds a lot of variety and introspection throughout the duration of the album.

The album does not fall into the trope of predictability at all, with an interesting switch within tracks like ‘CBT’ and ‘Happy Place’, that almost contain characteristics of light trance- reflecting the otherwise relieving and pleasant themes within these tracks. The latter presents itself with a very interesting lo-fi synthesis sandwiched between Reese basses and peppy syncopation, and I think the arrangement itself is extremely proficient and cool.

Songs like ‘Together’ also amp up the existential feel of this album, through techniques such as anticipatory chord structures and a build-up. There’s a definite influence of EDM subgenres throughout this album that’s quite distinct to pick up and is very delightful to listen to. The entire album does not only consist of EDM tracks, with the track ‘Back to Nature’ certainly sticking out as one of the best tracks that highlights Kat’s wonderfully raw and earnest vocals. I admit, the production level of the previous tracks were so fascinating that the vocals are not necessarily in the forefront due to VERY SLIGHT mixing differences, but this track is absolutely golden and operatic- almost putting me in the mind of some of Kate Bush’s more thought-provoking tracks.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the album. For a body of work entirely done by one person, the attention to detail and high quality within the production aspect definitely lands it plus points. The lyrics are also extremely apt and detailed in telling her personal story, struggle as well as victory with mental health, and I think this album is quaint and beautiful.

SCORE/Excellent: ‘Refocus’ is a very interesting effort by Kat Button in creating an album that intersects between autodidactic production as well as introspective, self-identifying lyricism. It’s filled with complex, sufficient instrumentation that definitely build a consistent theme throughout the album, combined with quirks and extra perks that would definitely keep you listening as a listener as well as further understand her narrative conducively.

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The single’s overall sound has a pop feel to it. It’s sweet to the ear, and you can just listen to it alone. You get a twangy motion with a lot of vibration going on instrumentally. This gives ‘Water Knows’ a retro-style video game sound – something you would associate with ‘My Red Hot Car’, a song by Squarepusher.

While the beat on ‘Water Knows’ is almost weightless, the song’s official description speaks of its vocals and trumpet as creating a ‘mysterious water vibe’. The description also talks about water having the possibility of healing and destroying.

The song subverts the school of thought that traditional EDM is all about dancing. This type of music falls under Intelligent Dance Music, a sub-genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the 1990s. This is music made to make you think – about water at least. Whether it makes you think about something else besides water is another story.

The ethereal beat is complemented by equally ethereal lyrics. Everything is uncertain, sings Elvira Kalnik. She then employs a devastating ‘darkness’-‘emptiness’-‘dimension’-‘meditation’ rhyming set. She sings about there being no darkness. What’s there, we hear, is ‘absence of light’, this absence likened to emptiness. It’s this absence/emptiness where everything starts, as our narrator speaks of unfolding through dimension.

For me, when I hear ‘dimension’, I think of space. Minds, we hear, flow in ‘meditation’.

Having talked about the ethereal part of the lyrics, let’s now talk about the realistic or cynical part. The song’s narrator tells us that, whereas they’ve heard that life’s a game, they, however, wish that were true. Elvira Kalnik says that the ‘the meaning and feel to this song is relief, hope and positive outcome through tapping into inner reality and releasing everything that ways us down into water and let it all be carried away’.

Score/Excellent. This is a beautifully understated EDM song whose lyrics awaken our consciousness and get me thinking. It got me thinking about water and life’s uncertainties. Moreover, it gave me a new appreciation of electronic music.

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