The Star EP
There’s an eerie, mystical quality to downtempo, synth-laced R&B that summons images of late night drives (either alone or with a trusted confidante), a hushed silence that seems to amplify our deep breaths and chirping crickets. It feels like killing the headlights but leaving the car on. Have you set the scene? Good. Enter Onbloom, seemingly from a cloud.
Based in Everett, MA, Onbloom has a voice, talent, and emotional resonance that extends beyond that of an average 20 year-old. Today, she’s releasing her debut EP, titled The Star, which feels like the perfect title. With a vocal style the feels so imbued with pining and a sense that it’s traveling across lightyears to reach your ears, you get the sense as a listener that she’s wishing upon a star in a neon-hued fairytale.
Photo Courtesy of Onbloom
At a concise four track, The Star doesn’t waste time meandering, despite eliciting the sense that it is a message traveling across such a vast distance. “I want your space,” she pines on EP opener “Silver Lining.” She continues, “I’m on a cloud, like a silver lining.” This metaphorical wordplay has never sounded less cheesy when coupled with the sincerity and earnestness in the singer’s voice.
In her own words, The Star is about the process of freeing yourself from delusions after a particularly painful heartbreak and finding clarity in your own thoughts. There is a gentle minimalism to the production of the album that supports this: watery synthesizers and light percussive elements keep the focus on Onbloom’s voice. This is best heard on closing track “Sight,” which builds in its melodic elements, but never becomes so overloaded with sonic elements that it distracts from the singer wisping that she “sees through it all… I see clearly now, no more seeing sounds.”
Stream Onbloom’s The Star below via Soundcloud or on your streaming service of choice.