Red Vanilla released new EP Where I Should Be on April 3.
From the get go I was impressed that Anna lets her Scottish accent shine through. So many vocalists alter their accent when they sing and it’s really a shame, but the Scottish accent really adds an extra element to the vocal delivery.
Electric Blue’s almost-spoken word delivery in the first verse was nice and the instrumentation builds up in line with the intensity of the lyrical delivery. The repetition about it getting better is like Anna dove into my brain and pulled out some of my thoughts, so that hit quite hard. The instrumental towards the end of the track was good, and the focus on the guitar right at the end was a nice touch for the final two lines.
Hazy is a song that hit hard lyrically, talking about isolation being the only way forward and only suffering from what you create.
The melodic Play Me Something New was quite an emotional track to listen to, it has beautiful vocals and soothing guitars.
The EP is full of some really intense lyrics including the titular lines of Ask Her if She’s Happy, including: “Ask her if she’s happy being alive, she’ll cross her heart and then she’ll lie.”
It’s a really strong alt rock record.