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Ms. Star on the Rise: Alessia Cara Debuts New EP ‘Four Pink Walls’

Anybody out here remember their first big teenage party? When the kitchen was full, the stereo was pounding, and red solo cups were everywhere?

Me neither.

Instead, if you asked Def Jam’s newest talent, she’d spin it for you pretty quick, and you’d at least get the clearest vision of it you could…without all the smoke in the air.

You may know Alessia Cara from her breakout hit “Here,” released in May of this year, after her signing with Def Jam became official. The lead single off the EP is the sound of a girl very finished with a party full of stumbling people. She voices her concerns and sounds uppity with the lyrics, “Excuse me if I seem a little unimpressed with this / An anti-social pessimist / But usually I don’t mess with this.”

Cara, now nineteen, released the follow up Four Pink Walls EP, two days earlier than scheduled, on August 26^th. Speaking to MTV about it, Cara said she thought the early release would be a “cool surprise” for everyone.

The five-song EP delivers a solid sound for Cara, rushing back all the way when she was thirteen and started posting songs online for views. She even got a huge American TV appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, after the host saw videos of her singing and specifically asked for an appearance.

The lead single has garnered a fan base of many and currently sits on the iTunes Pop Charts at #16, and the overall charts at #46 and climbing. Four Pink Walls currently rests, on August 27^th, at #6 on the album charts.

The newly gained success and potential breakthrough for Cara isn’t happening by accident. The EP puts together a new type of pop that transcends the average repetitive choruses in the genre. Cara, having written the songs at the ripe age of seventeen and beyond, brings forth the new frontier of young adults everywhere.

Following in the same vein as newly released artist Hailee Steinfeld, there isn’t a track on the EP that seems too big for Cara. Her voice flits in and out in perfect rhythm to the third track on the album, “Outlaws,” which hints at a 1950s vibe, while the echoes in the back sound like touching silk.

The highlight of the EP rests in the title track, “Four Pink Walls,” which showcases the tender drop of Cara’s voice and cleans out the rest of the songs without a backward glance. Cara tells her story of a new fast-paced life and wishing for when her world was a certain grade of normal, which she catalogs in the lyrics, “Everything shifted overnight / Went from ‘when boredom strikes’ to ‘Ms. Star on the Rise’ / It was all in an instant, man / But those four pink walls / Now I kind of miss them, man.”

“I’m Yours” is an ode to love, in the very passionate and angry way. It’s a song worth a spot on the EP but falls short among the other dominating songs listed. Smack dab in the middle with the others gives it little attention, and it’s more likely that a listener will go back to the previous song, or the next one; album producers Pop & Oak ensure that the track still makes it through your speakers, despite the submissive quality of it.

Now that Alessia Cara has given the world a taste of what she can do, it’s safe to say a full album release will do nothing but stellar things for her.

Ms. Star on the Rise has lit up the building.

9/10

Brooke Pawling Stennett

Brooke Pawling Stennett is a college student pursuing a degree in Multimedia Journalism and Creative Non-Fiction in the old Windy City. She tends to lean toward the obsessive side of the tracks when it comes to books and music. She's an avid concert attendee (or at least she tries to!) and rambler. She'd like to travel the world and write about it, but in the only ways she knows how: sarcastically and full of internet jargon. Her opinions are her best ones, especially if they involve boy-bands and Netflix. . .even though she doesn't even have her own account. You can tweet her at @br_stennett and tell her how ridiculous (and totally great!) her opinions are.