New Good Song: "Echoes," Lauren Aquilina 1.10.16

Here's a new good song: "Echoes" by Lauren Aquilina. I've featured Lauren on this blog before, but as a quick recap, she's a young English singer-songwriter-pianist with a penchant for very slow, melancholy ballads, released on EPs with single-word titles (e.g., "Fools," "Sinners,"  "Liars," "Ocean"). Some of my favorite songs by her have been:

• "Sinners," my 46th favorite song of 2013, off the "Sinners" EP
• "Irrelevant," my 70th favorite song of 2014, off the "Sinners" EP
• "Broke," my 78th favorite song of 2014, off the "Liars" EP
• "Ocean," my 111th favorite song of 2015, off the "Ocean" EP

The song "Ocean" was a departure for Aquilina because, although it starts off with her traditionally minimalist atmosphere, it breaks into a raucous instrumental halfway through, a move that I imagine was somewhat experimental and a desire to avoid being pigeonholed as a balladeer. I personally found it distraction and not altogether successful, but it seemed like an unearned climax. Now here's "Echoes," which was released in December and is not included on the "Ocean" EP, which was released in October. In "Echoes," Lauren is experimenting with even more of a pop instrumental sound, and again I think we're witnessing evolution, not yet her best work. See what you think, and keep your eye on her!