‘Keep Your Eyes Open’ is the brand new EP by Emma McGrath. It is soaring and emotional pop with a slight edge of jazz. The four-track EP is a mesmerising and enchanting summary of Emma’s musical talents. This EP is the second in a series of three connecting EP’s, ‘Keep Your Eyes Open (Silent Minds pt. II)’ deals with issues of honesty and trust, letting go of anxieties and taking risks.
The introduction of this EP is ‘Other Side’, a wandering piece with hauntingly lingering vocals. The beat that kicks in after the fortieth second sounds like a heart that beats slightly too fast out of excitement. It’s the excitement of Emma’s refined voice. The nearly three minutes of ‘Other Side’ flow smoothly into ‘Fall With You’, a song that sets off with McGrath’s voice right at the beginning. ‘Fall With You’ starts off slower than its predecessor but at the fortieth second becomes an up beat ode to ‘you’. Playing cleverly with her lyrics, all songs seem to be an addition to the other. ‘Fall With You’ is a song with a rhythm that makes it impossible not to move and smile. It is pavonine and rosy and has a hint of love song but one of the non-cheesy kind.
‘Keep Your Eyes’ is the grand gesture that got me into Emma McGrath in the first place, with full focus on Emma’s echoing voice and remarkable harmonies. It is a spotlight on the way social media can be freeing as well as capturing. Emma says, “In a way, social media frees us because it makes all information available, but it also confines us because it can get you stuck in a cycle of comparing yourself to others and leaves you open to other people’s unfiltered opinions”.
Closer of the EP is swinging ‘Old Times’, another brutally honest and lyrically outstanding song on which McGrath showcases the limits of her vocal range. It’s the harmonies that work so well with the instrumentals as soon as the beat goes up. This EP does not consist of four singles, it’s one and it’s a whole. Emma McGrath has a part of my soul with her honest and inevitable sound, I can’t wait for the third EP.
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