LA songwriter and artist Simona Shao blends acoustic and contemporary pop qualities through a softly evocative realm, and the results are sublime. Her latest three-track EP Waves presents three parts or chapters of a story, reflecting on the highs and lows of an impactful romance, and balancing calm, poetic imagery and ideas, with personal experiences that feel both relatable and profound.
As an introduction, the single and video for Waves is divine – a perfectly crafted pop single, tender and purposeful, mellow and loaded with metaphors, vocally distinct. The acoustic guitar, the light rhythms, short lines yet a clear depth of concept.
Always we resolve back to this image of the waves and the river, and it’s beautiful – the music meeting the ebb and flow of the topic quite perfectly, and the visuals coinciding well, as these nostalgic beach-side scenes further reinforce the romantic connection and dreamy longing of the song.
The EP then lifts the mood a little, from serene and imaginative, to more upbeat and colourful. Don’t Wait For Me is similarly nostalgic, but with longer verses laying down a little more detail as to the origins of this story of love. The pace is up, the performance more energised and passionate, and that structural shift provides the ideal central peak for the EP.
Then to finish, we return to simplicity – piano recorded authentically, for that live sense of realism, and a sweeping ambient soundscape backing nearly whispered, intimate vocals, as more poetic and personal revelations captivate beautifully. A Love Song is both familiar and impressively unique, an honest depiction of an artist committed to the bit – to this theme, this expression, and this rightfully flowing arrangement of energy or Waves.
The humility and simultaneous talent of Simona Shao is undeniable with this project, and the music is a dream to escape into.
Download or stream Waves. Find Simona Shao on Instagram. Read our interview from 2022 to see where things began.
