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 mixtures are what make it work, similar 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 title “Sophia Streams”. After discovering religion on the age of 33, she has skilled what she calls “seasons”. Completely different elements 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 an alternative, 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 go away that thought? By no means thoughts, I received it
Keep in mind season 5, episode three of The Simpsons? The place Homer sees a squirrel and runs after it? Most likely 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 may 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 fashionable 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 tune morphs like a diorama would when moist.
The rug was pulled, now my complete life has modified
A second of sudden and irreversible transformation.
I’m now not a woman
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 maybe the least acute nevertheless it brings in regards to the tune with my favourite imagery.
As somebody with a variety of vitality, a variety of concepts and a vulnerable to a variety of distractions, I’ve all the time stated my head is sort of a shed; filled 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 have 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 tune’s finish. Nick Taylor joins the occasion for vocal duties and helps usher in a realization of a wanted change.
What additionally makes this tune fascinating is the very intentional manufacturing decisions. It’s a bar tune by design and that very same bar is audible within the background seamlessly forming a part of the tune.
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 worth of fame.
Gonna tune your soul…to bounce for fame
Blake Flattley, singing with the identical grit you’d anticipate of the late, nice Mark Lanegan, delivers strains that poke holes within the dream of stardom.
His manufacturing additionally helps the tune 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 last tune, “River of Love” appears to be like to flip the agenda.
I’m so uninterested in being fallacious
A robust opening and a mission assertion for a piano lounge ballad. The tune paints an image of stale smoke and a silent transfixed crowd. Madison Youch’s vocals are doubtlessly the strongest on the EP and create a agency stamp of positivity in a style that usually provides off morose and blues-infested vibes.
However a robust 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 by means of religion, household or associates, we would simply have the ability to quieten the thoughts slightly 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 into a surrogate household, linked by religion and a love for music, she has cast an EP that is smart of the chaos of the thoughts by leaning into an virtually hectic smorgasbord of influences.
She’s discovered substances from totally different pages of the recipe e book and made them match and if her subsequent “season” is as a chef, I’m all for it.
