The digital behemoth that is YouTube has proven itself a wondrous lifeboat for a lot of musical talent since it’s inception, giving young bands, singers and musicians alike the jolt they need to jumpstart their future careers in music.
Just when the endless stream of future pop royalty began looking tiresomely monotonous, out comes Lauren Aquilina to impress us with her sublime vocals and perspicacious songwriting and musicality.
Her career thus far has only been funded by a Saturday job, which has allowed her to record a trilogy of prolific storytelling EP’s, three high quality, message bound music videos and abstract photography… Not bad for somebody who’s love of music is only paralleled by her adoration of chocolate bourbons.
Lauren’s sound is beautifully crafted soul-inflected Piano Pop (a sound that Sara Bareilles, Chantal Kreviazuk and Regina Spektor have been known to dabble in) that conjures lifting atmospheres, honey-sweet vocals and some of the wisest lyrics that any teenage songwriter has ever written.
Her trilogy of EP’s mark the different stages of young love and as the title of the final chapter suggests, ‘Lovers or Liars’ muses on the heartbreaking realisation that something incredible wasn’t meant to be and you fight with everything you have to expel these dispiriting thoughts. Lauren’s vocals stand tall and carry such an emotional weight that it’s easy to hear that the lyrics aren’t that of a fabricated story, but something she has had to power through.
‘Forest Fires’ conjures the lyrical imagery that you might hear from Adele or Ellie Goulding, as she softly sings of her lover causing chaos to get a reaction from our heroine as she waits in silence realising that a once powerful love has come to an end (And whilst I watch in silence/ You’re starting Forest Fires/ You start them just to feel the heat). Melodically, this serves as one of her most spine tingling creations to date and will have no trouble tugging at the hardest of hearts.
Third cut ‘Square One’ is a track that Aquilovers may already recognise as it has been floating among Lauren’s many YouTube videos for over a year now and rapidly became a fan favourite. Departing the destructive sorrow of ‘Forest Fires’, Lauren dances along a slightly joyful melody after breaking free from a relationship she once felt trapped in.
The final words of this two-year story come in the shape of ‘Broke’, a song that Lauren describes as her most personal yet. (If I could change my feelings/ I would forfeit all my bones/ Your love is worth a fortune/ But my hearts already Broke). Here we find Lauren at her most vulnerable as she recites the achingly beautiful lyrics accompanied by nothing more than atmosphere and gentle chords. A song that Cyndi Lauper would’ve happily recorded around the time of her hit ballad ‘Time After Time’
After several years of offers, Lauren has just signed her first recording contract with the mammoth Island Records to record her debut album. Until the time of it’s release, her first two EP’s ‘Fools’ & ‘Sinners’ are available for download, while ‘Liars’ is available for pre-order.