For her latest single, Running, the endlessly accoladed singer-songwriter Ell South fused ethereal artfulness and synth-carved 80s nostalgia to invite her audience into an aural chamber of honesty, vulnerability, and clarity.
Anyone who has ever known how brutal a battle of wills can be when you are going up against your own mind will see themselves reflected in a crystal-clear mirror when they allow the all-consuming vocal harmonies to take control of their psyche.
The stabbing synth lines with 80s-esque massive percussion and driving basslines give the track the same sense of resilience that radiates from the lyricism, while the lashings of reverb in the poetically illuminating atmosphere will sell sanctuary to the soul – especially the ones weary with ennui.
A certain degree of the authenticity within Ell South’s sound stems from her Welsh and Slovenian roots. She saw music as a right of passage after coming of age in a musical family and clearly came into her own while leaning on an eclectic array of influences.
Since making her debut, her music has featured on BBC Radio Wales, and her debut single launch was performed to a capacity crowd. She’s perceptively on the rise, but something tells us that won’t stop her from reaching out to her fans to lift them when they’re down.
Running hit the airwaves on the 25th of July; you can hear it by heading over to Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast