Scarborough musician LOONY is striking into 2020 still ablaze from the success of her 2018 EP Part 1. Coming after a year of singles, her JOYRiDE EP is an intimate collection of sober narrations and soaring runs, exemplifying LOONY's contrasting personas.
The EP unravels like a short film, with "PRELUDE" setting the scene. Overlapping voices circle like a 360-degree camera shot as a choir of voices increase in intensity, transporting you into LOONY's story. "iN CODE" flickers into focus with bright guitar strums, a sunny afternoon and a vision of LOONY confidently strolling down the street. Gospel chord progressions and a brass line lend swagger to her vocal strut, while her rap emits Cool Big Sister vibes. It ultimately overshadows follow-up "WHiTE LIE," where, despite low-tuned toms and tasty bass riffs, the song tends to lose itself in the repetitive groove, fizzling out towards its end.
However, the second half of the EP is a synesthesia-filled episode. If "NO !" is the track that soothes you to sleep from its slow glissando, wavy bells, and 90's R&B acoustic guitar, "SUMMERTiME / CiGARETTES" is the dream that follows. Its beat thrums like the ripples in a fountain, shifting the first half of the song's angelic, mesmerizing vocals into a mirage while a pitch-shifted voice declares "summertime only smells like cigarettes", describing the days "bumming on the sidewalk" and "someone grilling something," recalling sunnier, more social days.
"GHOSTS" flips the mood that the beginning of the EP laid down, contrasting "iN CODE"'s energetic, sunny vibes with something more melancholic, as LOONY walks towards a sunset of laid-back guitar strums. She laments, "another one on my own," until the guitar takes you out, and her silhouette disappears into the horizon.
(AWAL)The EP unravels like a short film, with "PRELUDE" setting the scene. Overlapping voices circle like a 360-degree camera shot as a choir of voices increase in intensity, transporting you into LOONY's story. "iN CODE" flickers into focus with bright guitar strums, a sunny afternoon and a vision of LOONY confidently strolling down the street. Gospel chord progressions and a brass line lend swagger to her vocal strut, while her rap emits Cool Big Sister vibes. It ultimately overshadows follow-up "WHiTE LIE," where, despite low-tuned toms and tasty bass riffs, the song tends to lose itself in the repetitive groove, fizzling out towards its end.
However, the second half of the EP is a synesthesia-filled episode. If "NO !" is the track that soothes you to sleep from its slow glissando, wavy bells, and 90's R&B acoustic guitar, "SUMMERTiME / CiGARETTES" is the dream that follows. Its beat thrums like the ripples in a fountain, shifting the first half of the song's angelic, mesmerizing vocals into a mirage while a pitch-shifted voice declares "summertime only smells like cigarettes", describing the days "bumming on the sidewalk" and "someone grilling something," recalling sunnier, more social days.
"GHOSTS" flips the mood that the beginning of the EP laid down, contrasting "iN CODE"'s energetic, sunny vibes with something more melancholic, as LOONY walks towards a sunset of laid-back guitar strums. She laments, "another one on my own," until the guitar takes you out, and her silhouette disappears into the horizon.