Introducing a welcomed edge of playful yet poetic creativity – Kimberly Baluzo delivers the evocative single Elephant Love with increasing passion and depth.
Written and composed by Dean Mark Hilario Enoza, arranged by Shardei Bueno, this collaborative single drives with a cleverly memorable metaphorical image, and balances that somewhat quirky trait with genuinely heartfelt revelations about intimacy and connection. The result is an emotive pop-rock sound with distinct imagery, metaphors, sentiments, and a huge chorus – all of which falls somewhere between the likes of Anti Hero and Set Fire To The Rain.
The inability to forget is exemplified in the very concept, and explored throughout verses and a pre-chorus that talk of the overwhelming hold infatuation and love can have on a person. It’s an individual honesty, but its sentiments are broadly relatable, and the way the track has been built around this allows those feelings and memories to really hit with impact.
On a personal level, it’s this progression from delicacy to power that reinforces the emotional intensity of the song – the melancholic longing is intoxicating at pinnacle of the production and performance, and that intoxication rightfully connects with the hypnotic infatuation at the heart of the lyrics.
“Weightless hearts fly like stringless kites.”
Structurally Elephant Love explodes into new life for its halfway drop into the second verse – listen to the change at 1:40; the production excels here, the full-band warmth subtly presenting an elephant sound effect before elevating the performance and the simultaneous evolution of the lyrics. The words ‘Melodies I hear within me’ pour through in unison, the strength of the melody itself illustrated in the return to this familiar concept of melody and memory walking hand in hand.
At this point we’re back to the initial sentiment of the memories that won’t leave, the daydream in direct opposition with reality; the elephant in the room. It’s a looping mentality that again underlines the inescapable weight of this Elephant Love. Things appear recognizable but more heated. As the beat hits, Kimberly’s own delivery achieves a mild sense of urgency and passion, and the whole arrangement proceeds to tighten its emotional grip on the listener.
Design-wise Elephant Love feels like a classic pop hit only with a twist of live drums and colourful synths and keys to help contrast the melancholy of the lyrics; offering a clearly uplifting brightness that works wonders for the emotional prowess of the writing. We move from purely piano and voice to the boldness of a wholly loaded set-up, and as the middle-8 kicks in, that presence and power multiplies all the more so – Kimberly’s voice in particular reaching phenomenal new peaks in reflecting on the sheer and inescapable weight of this love.
Promising a unique balance of accessible, classic pop, and the defiantly more distinct angle of poetic analogy and imagery, Elephant Love captures attention for its title, and holds onto that attention with the natural vehemence of the writing and delivery.
Download or stream Elephant Love – Apple, YouTube. Find Kimberly Baluzo on Instagram.
