London singer-songwriter and composer Ana Arts have just released their EP ‘Cried so Hard I Started Laughing’, a mix of ethereal vocals and enticing, muffled atmospheres that will lure you in.
Ana Arts – Cried so Hard I Started Laughing
Alongside being an artist, Ana Arts have been working on music for films and adverts for several years. Their music reflects on the world we live in, alternating a humorous to a very deep lense. ‘Cried so Hard I Started Laughing’ follows the EP ‘Cold Coffee’ released in 2021, continuing Arts’ exploration of sound.
The EP opens with ‘The Ocean is on Fire’, a sombre, nostalgic track characterised by elements recalling the trap scene and a beautiful trip-hop soundscape. The track explores a feeling of longing for a person we’ve lost but at the same time the wish to keep them out of our life. Arts perfectly captures the duality of this feeling with the line ‘they say sharks don’t like to eat people, yet, I feel the adrenaline crash when I see your face’. Arts’ signature of poetry and stream-of-consciousness lyricism is a real gem.
The second track ‘Slow’, which is also accompanied by a lyric video, is seemingly a more uplifting song, especially for the sweet soundscape it creates. ‘Slow’ deals with the blooming of new love, but reading between the lines we see a pre-established fear that our new lover will leave. In this track Arts’ vocals are a caress, resembling the sound of the sea we think we hear in a seashell, confessing a fear of abandonment that we all share.
Production-wise, Arts has a taste for enveloping sounds, creating minimal but emotive arrangements that take you into a state of quiet self-reflection, blurring the lines between day and night.
The closing track ‘Too Shiny’ is a slow burner, setting off as an ambient track, where nature sounds are only overlaid by Arts’ mesmerising vocals, harmonised à la Billie Eilish. However, halfway through, the song opens up with a catchy pop beat, although maintaining Arts’ signature dark sound. A great and energetic way to conclude the listening experience and set you in the mood to play it all over again.
Ana Arts’ ‘Cried so Hard I Started Laughing’ is an incredible musical effort, putting them at the front of the trip-hop/alt-pop scene and one of the artists to watch in 2022.
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Words Anna Colombo
