One of our good friends here at Overtone, UK country star Emily Lockett, is set to release a follow-up to her 2022 EP very soon! Released to coincide with her slot at the awesome Buckle & Boots festival this weekend, a limited run of physical copies are being sold ahead of a digital release in the summer. We had the absolute pleasure of getting a sneak peak at it and, spoiler alert, it’s a bit good! So, join me as I essentially gush over it for a few paragraphs!
Opener ‘Blow Your Mind’ picks up right where her previous EP left off. A short intro leads into an almost pop-leaning verse filled with an electronic beat and Emily’s amazing vocals. I know she sites Taylor Swift as a big inspiration on her, so given Taylor’s recent output, this makes a lot of sense! The acoustic guitar soon comes in in the back to help build up the sound, leading to a great, rather understated chorus. It’s not quite as massive and stadium-filling as I was expecting from Emily’s previous releases, but it does fit in well with the latest sounds in country music. It reminds me a lot of some of the stuff off Tenille Arts’ new album, which is certainly not a bad thing! Either way, the vocal melodies are still awesome and catchy as anything! We even get a fantastic, albeit brief, acoustic guitar solo tucked in the middle here, it fitting the song perfectly. A stripped-bridge and chorus builds up perfectly into the massive final one, concluding the song in amazing fashion. Especially with the guitar stabs as it comes back in and the slight off-beat explosion back in. Everything about this is awesome, and it will certainly make our playlist as soon as it makes it onto streaming platforms!
Next up is ‘Rush Hour Crush’. It opens on a quiet guitar chord progression, the slide in the back immediately giving off more country vibes than the last track. The instrumentation builds up more and more, the low drums and slide building to another catchy, fun chorus. It’s a rather beautiful love (ish) song that I can almost hear massive festival crowds singing along to after just the one listen. I do feel like some backing vocals or harmonies could have been nice, though. I didn’t even notice the strings had come in the back until the bridge, them adding so much fantastic depth to the track! She does the whole ‘dropped down first half of the final chorus’ so well, and this is one of the best examples of the trope I’ve ever heard. I loved this track a lot!
The tone shifts dramatically heading into ‘Your New Blonde’, a wonderfully spiteful breakup song, par for the course with country music, of course! The emotion brims out of Emily’s vocals, the delivery being the perfect mix of both cutting and still sweet. And the instrumentation surprisingly fits it all amazingly. And despite the anger, it’s still a wonderfully catchy chorus, and one that I’m sure will resonate with a lot of people. I also love the half-timed instrumentation for a little bit of the final chorus, it almost giving it an epic feel to it. The subtleties in Emily’s writing are amazing, and I’m sure she doesn’t get the credit she deserves for it, given the style of music. It’s another awesome song!
The final track on the EP is a beautiful, simple ballad. The first verse and chorus is just Emily with her guitar and vocals, the piano and other guitars slowly building in around the minute mark. I love the lack of drums, the guitar providing plenty of rhythm on its own. And somehow the dynamics of the track are so massive despite the lack of instrumentation that it’s arguably the biggest sounding chorus on the release. The lyrics are incredible here too, my favourite on the EP. It’s another incredible song, and the perfect way to end this far-too-short release!
Overall: I loved this. But then again, it’s Emily Lockett, of course I did! She seems incapable of writing a bad song at this point, and her brand of country-pop music is so well done and performed and really ahead of the curve in the UK. She wears her inspirations on her sleeve while writing from the heart, producing something that sounds modern and awesome. I’ve been saying this for a few years at this point, but I do truly think she’s going to be a massive name in the scene, and with releases like this, it’s not hard to see why I think that. It’s added to my collection of all three EPs, and I cannot wait to hear where Emily goes next. An album, maybe…? 🤞
The Score: 8.5/10