After appearing alongside Clint Mansell and Philip Glass on the soundtrack for Park Chan-Wook’s recent psychological thriller ‘Stoker’, the incredibly talented Emily Wells prepares to release her debut UK album and single.
Darlin’ is an emotional track, showcasing the innate beauty of Emily’s bewitching voice. The song starts off upbeat with a lightness in the layers, masking a more sombre undertone and lyrics intense with vulnerability. Wells’ woefully utters ‘If I had any sense, if I had my innocence, I’d take you home with me’, punctuating a rare & brave sincerity.
Listen to Darlin’ below:
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Album ‘Mama’ (out June 3rd via Partisan Records) combines subtle hip-hop inflections and wide-ranging sounds with Emily’s distinctive feline vocals, creating a record that is simultaneously light & delicate with a bold punch of personality.
Contrasting with the heavy layering and electronics of the original, the UK version of ‘Mama’ sees Wells re-imagining the entire record acoustically for a second disc and mirror version. These fresh renditions of an already unique record are stunningly austere, recorded solely with voice and guitar. Emily Wells has stripped off her own armour, leaving only her crystalline voice and equally unambiguous songwriting on display.
From the start of her career, Wells’ musical interests were simply too wide ranging for just one instrument. Trained as a classical violinist, the Texan soon created her own sonic “spaceship,” an ever-growing pulsating arsenal of synthesizers, effects pedals and toy instruments, all tied together with live sampling and a genre-agnostic approach that is diverse, distinctive, and utterly her own. Honing her sound on a series of independent releases, including an acclaimed cover of The Notorious B.I.G.’s classic ‘Juicy’, it was these initial glimpses and the countless live dates both as bandleader and solo performer that carved out the musician she has become today.
The female singer-songwriter stable may be packed with unique voices and varying degrees of talent, but Emily Wells is an artist whose innate complexities lift her out of that particular stable and into a realm all of her own.