Elba Rose - Magdalene (EP)
Alt-pop singer-songwriter Elba Rose releases her new EP ‘Magdalene’ out everywhere on 29 February.
For fans of BANKS and Lorde, Elba crafts moody alternative pop tracks with hiphop influenced percussion and patterns, featuring raw, honest and scenic lyrical storytelling and ethereal vocals. Having released the EP tracks gradually over the last couple of months, the EP’s final track ‘Sleep Paralysis’ marks the release of the EP in full. The EP’s themes touch on mental health, relationships, female empowerment and coming into your own.
The EP’s opening track ‘Blood Bath’ was written after Elba experienced her first panic attack - ‘when these first started happening I experienced so much shame, I couldn’t look anyone who loved me in the eye after they happened.” The most recent single ‘No Note, No Telephone’ explores the story of a relationship being broken off with no real explanation and how it feels when a relationship doesn’t turn out the way you imagined in your head.
‘Live Wire’ (described as carnival trip hop) was written about winter blues - “I’ve always found winter time hard, it’s the time of year I usually feel my most anxious and low, especially january so when I was feeling it creeping up on me I jokingly wrote this song as if my mental health was a stalker and I was telling it to kindly leave me the hell alone.”
‘Playing Pretty’ explores what it means to be a woman, and EP closing track ‘Fleeting Fickle’ was written about Elba’s relationship with sex, she says, “growing up as a girl you’re told conflicting things about sex through family, society tv, film and porn but none of it ever really focussed on how I should feel about sex or my enjoyment, initially I only had the first couple of verses when I sent it to Ruiner I didn’t think it would make the EP but he built a really beautiful structure with gaps in and sent it back to me to write a second verse and the final chorus section, there were a lot of voice notes sent with different melody ideas and along the way it slowly turned into a song that explores the feeling of falling in love with someone who maybe doesn’t feel the way you do.”
Speaking of the EP as a whole, Elba says, “I wrote this EP at a time in my life where I feel like I was coming into my own and processing things that have made me me both good and bad and fully embracing them. When you struggle with your mental health it can feel incredibly isolating. I didn't want to show people that I was struggling but I realised opening up about it was such a huge weight off my shoulder. This EP was a massive form of therapy to me to process all of that. So I hope anyone going through the same thing will find it helpful to know they aren’t alone.”