In just 4 tracks, Summer Walker has managed to shake up all of our feelings. She has become the most anticipated alternative R&B artist of the year, and has everything to show for it.
In just the first track, Summer promises you a rollercoaster of emotions. ‘Riot’ has subtle entrance, with chords that sound similar to the strum of a heartbreak. When you hear the first lyric, it is impossible not to feel goosebumps. Summer has an amazing ability to say things that we all feel; and she more so knows how to sum it up in the most perfect manner.
She might be calling someone out, or describing simply how melancholy her love is- yet it still sounds beautiful.
In track 2; ‘Grave’, there’s introduction of synthesizers. Some might say that is unlike Summer, but execute the sound with addition of a deep bass and shimmy symbol. In the song she discusses how she would rather throw a fit than to encounter another man who just wants to use her- if need be, “put it on her grave.”
Can you tell she has us feeling read to filth?
The best thing about the CLEAR EP involves the fact that the lyrics are so poetic that many of the verses are up to interpretation. In the third track, ‘Settling’, Summer seems to tell the story of a love she feels so strongly for but can no longer handle. Her indecisiveness suggests the reality of how we can stay in relationships that are no longer beneficial to anything but our feelings. She struggles to answer her own questions throughout the song because of this too.
In this project, Summer chooses to leave each song title with only one word. Each of these songs are infused with vulnerability, honesty and are increasingly elusive. Although those terms can take a wrong term and become quite vague, Ms. Walker does an amazing job straying away from that. She leaves you wanting more without casting you out of her shadows. She gives you what you are looking for, and it is up for you to interpret. Her ability to truthfully be CLEAR has come in her concept of transparency. It is something you don’t see in artists this early on. And she seems to have it all figured out.
Take a listen to Summer Walker’s CLEAR Ep here: