Vancouver Electro-Pop Artist Emily Rowed Releases Hypnotic New Album | The Music Mermaid

Some years mean more than others. For Vancouver-based artist Emily Rowed, the year that stirred her and moved her and shook her up inspired her new EP, APRIL, a half-hour long confessional that finds Emily reflecting — raw and often painfully — on the twelve months that stretched between two important Aprils. The result is a stunning collection of dreamy, subtle electro-pop ballads that highlight Emily’s far-reaching talents.

The thing about APRIL is that it is virtually seamless — there are ten gentle songs on the album but they morph one into the other, all born out of a misty composition that has the chameleon ability to adjust and adapt to whatever comes next, so that the whole record feels like one long winding song. APRIL’s humble beginnings are on “Two Feet,” our first introduction to Emily’s hypnotic vocals. She has a haunting lilt, barely above a whisper, and devoid of any wild intonations, so it’s really the thread that remains pulled taut throughout the whole record. The actual arrangement of the piece is just as eerie — there’s nothing aggressive about it, because it’s mostly a foggy electronic composition, but there’s an edge or an anxiety to it too before merging smoothly into “Human,” already one of the standouts on APRIL. Mimicking the slow percussive punches and dreamy distant synths of its predecessor, it blooms into an emotive dark-pop piece. On “Standing Still,” Emily delivers a remarkable effort comprised of jarring piano notes, the shimmer and flutter of quick percussion, and a dizzying tug-of-war between minimalism and controlled chaos.