So far, 2014 has been filled with young artists who've repeatedly challenged commonly held assumptions about the artistic limits of pop music. No longer satisfied with letting the truly sophisticated sounds remain the domain of the major players, upstarts like Laurel are taking the fight to the established superstars, and they're doing it very well. Granted, this dynamic of the young replacing the old is nothing new, but it always helps to know who to bet on with your own time and efforts, and at this point, Laurel is looking more and more like a sure thing for your listening pleasure. Her debut EP comes on the heels of a handful of very successful singles, and her reputation among fans and critics right now is starting to look like Lana Del Rey's did on the eve of her big surge to widespread acclaim a couple of years ago. It's a recipe for success for the artist, certainly, but the linchpin to her future viability as a widespread artist lies in the quality of this EP. If people like it, she's golden, but if it doesn't measure up to the hype she managed to create with tracks like "Blue Bloods" and "Fire Breather", then she'll have to go back to the drawing board (which isn't necessarily a terrible thing, we shoud add). Fortunately for Laurel, no drawing board is needed. All the songs on this tracklist are unique and well-thought out, and with "Shells" and "Nicotine Dreams" in her back pocket, she'll have no trouble keeping her hot streak alive. It's hard to produce an extended piece of work that holds up to the success of previous singles (especially if they do exceptionally well), but Laurel still appears to be holding the wheel of her engaging creativity, and it doesn't look like she's going to be slowing down anytime soon. Purchase To The Hills on iTunes now.
Laurel