Review: Explicare 'roses'

Recently, Myself and Ruby were contacted by Explicare who's a London based Singer/ Songwriter and Multi-Instrumentalist. She currently has three released singles, ‘Kyoto Sunrise’, ‘BEAST+ME’ and her newest release ‘Roses.’ All three tracks show off Explicare's combination of genres, from dream pop and nostalgic synth to gritty bass and raw style, she has twisted them all together to create her own unconventional genre. After spending so much time in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, some artists have found it difficult to stay motivated and inspired, however, while chatting to another Blog ‘Creative Boom’ Explicare said “It's important right now to be adaptable, and versatile. If you can't do one thing like gigging, spend your time reaching inside of yourself to find new elements of creativity." Explicare was able to maintain her creativity by writing her new single ‘Roses.’ She downloaded a music production software and wrote the track during the crisis, so if it wasn’t for lockdown, this beautiful track would’ve never been written, and I'm so excited to be reviewing this track today !

Released on August 3rd, ‘Roses’ is a touching, personal and delicate track that paints out the story of a budding romance between a couple friends who are quarantining together. After just one day, it had already hit 1000 streams on Spotify, and after listening to the track myself, I can understand why. The intro to the song is just beautiful and I was immediately captivated by the mesmerizing harmonies as the song begins. It gives off a dreamy vibe with her impressive vocal range. Her beautiful vocals are then accompanied by piano and what sounds like strings, which just add to the dreamy vibe, making it almost mesmeric. Although short, the introduction to the track is so calming, it gives me chills.

As the track continues into the first verse, Explicare's vocals are shown off further. Her soft and light vocals just ooze beauty, like melting honey, her voice is raw and pure. Within the verse, Explicare's vocals stay relatively in the low to mid range, which is contrasting to the mid to high range of the intro but i think that this was a great production decision as it keeps the listeners interested and entranced. Moreover, Explicare utilises more harmonies in the verse, with a synth like style which creates even more of a dream like effect. Moreover, the lyrics are just as favourable as the voice behind them. Again, they really contribute to the overall captivating vibe of the track. With the poetic like structure, I think the track has been authored beautifully and reminds me of the way Kate Bush used to write her songs too, however Explicare still manages to uphold her uniqueness making her incomparable to any other artist.

As the song progresses and the chorus kicks in, Explicare still has me entranced with her musicality. As the song switches over to the chorus, the song switches to a more dramatic, yet still gorgeous, tone. The piano has more structured chords in comparison to the lighter more broken chords in the verse. Moreover, even more harmonies are used but this time, they are of a much lower range making the chorus have a more deep and meaningful effect, which again keeps the listeners interested. The harmonies have the same synth-like vibe as they did in the verse. This particular ‘synth-like effect’ is actually one of my favourite things in the entire song. Later on in the song, in another chorus, the piano becomes a lot stronger and uses more broken chords and melodies. The piano is much louder than before, which makes this part of the song a focal point, before it strips back for the bridge.

The bridge of the track is much like the first chorus, where it has more structured chords, however this time, as the lyrics are repeated, the piano becomes ‘broken’ and more of a melody is formed, creating the perfect build up as the song enters into its final section. In addition, the synth like harmonies are utilised again to keep you entranced and to keep you listening. The musicality and creativity within the bridge of the track really does impress me, I cannot express how much I am in love with this song. As the song comes to a finish, the outro is stripped back completely, with their only being the piano playing a simple, high-pitched melody which is briefly accompanied by the same string like sound heard in the intro, ending the track perfectly.

As always, you can find the track below, myself and Ruby really do recommend you give it a listen.

Kay x

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6oN4bh2ehKo3t9eHVT89ej?si=MYnIpamoRgyMy283KQTrrw