To prove that it isn’t just Taylor Swift who can weave romantic daydreams into her pop melodies, the breakthrough indie pop artist EMA allowed her latest intimate vignette, Afterglow, to deliver dreamy yet panoramically visceral emotion. Getting caught up in the earwormy tides of the single that captures the bitter-sweet sensation of growing pains and leaving everything behind to come into your own is absolutely non-optional.
The synth-rock melodies towards the outro spike the sticky-sweet hit with emboldening energy while bursting the bubblegum pop bubble and establishing EMA as a trailblazer who didn’t have to completely rip up the indie pop rulebook to assert her originality.
The Toronto-residing singer-songwriter has been honing her talents by performing at open mics and festivals since she was eight years old. After she released her debut single, Get It, in February this year, it wasn’t long before she reached the one million fans mark. Staggeringly, when she covered Heather by Conan Gray, she graced Spotify’s Top Viral 50 playlist and surpassed the streaming count of the original, which tells you all you need to know about her ability to breathe life into explorations of emotion.
Afterglow lit up the airwaves on August 11th; bask in it yourself by joining EMA’s 30k monthly listeners and heading over to Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast