July 29th, 2023

This EP can be found here.

Although it's one of Alex G's lesser known EPs, made with the relatively unknown R.L Kelly (now known as just RL), I find it to be one Alex's better works and it was a great way for me to discover RL.

Track 1 - Magic Mirror - Alex G

This track's lyrics appear to revolve around the concept of becoming perfect for the mirror, and becoming a slave to the mirror and not being true to yourself or who you want to be. Musically this track is extremely lo-fi with lots of stray notes and with the background being a consistent lo-fi strumming of an accoustic guitar, and as the track goes on a strong electric guitar starts to take the lead, ripping through all the other intruments.

Track 2 - Adam - Alex G

This track also appears on "Trick", which is considered to be Alex G's best album (at least by Apple Music's *essential albums* section), and I find it is a lot less lo-fi than the rest of the tracks and almost doesn't fit onto this EP. Don't get me wrong it's a great track but it does feel a bit out of place

I find this song's lyrics to be about the singer singing about this boy, named Adam, trying to get his attention, by bullying him and tormenting him, stealing his lunch box, and splashing him in the eyes at the pool, all in an attempt to get his attention, because it appears that the singer likes Adam, as shown in the last line of the song that says "I want him so".

Musically song has both guitar and piano playing the chords with very lite drums and some lite bass as well, it's quite a simple song although there is an interlude with some acoustic finger picking and clean electric guitar notes, and after the song there's an intrument which I genuinelly have no idea what it's called but it sounds kinda spooky and has melotron vibes. Generally this song has a much more *hi-fi* sound than the rest of the EP, which (as I mentioned previously) does make it feel out of place in the EP but out of the context of the EP it's a great song.

Track 3 - Trade - Alex G

This track has a quite simplistic guitar which tends to stay around the more bassy notes, and lyrically this song seems to just be like feeling quite uncomfortable about being yourself and being unsure of what you think of yourself.

The first verse is about the singer just not caring about stuff anymore and not finding the humour in things anymore. In the second verse the singer says they are keeping to themselves and writing songs about other people who they're similar to because they feel that there's no person in them. In the third verse he writes about a different character who always seems to view things with a silver lining who'd like to "trade places" with the singer, and the singer seems frustrated that it seems like they can't understand they're struggles.

Track 4 - Everyday - R.L. Kelly

This song is about feeling dead inside, and feeling lonely, and trying to be ok with yourself and feel like there's nothing wrong. Musically this song is quite simple and very lo-fi, with at the start it just being an acoustic guitar until a beefy bass guitar comes in and takes a significant amount of the sound, and during the chorus' there's a very strong electric guitar which helps bring a lot of emphasis to the emotion in the chorus'.

Track 5 - The Voices - R.L. Kelly

This song is about is about being unsure of who you are, not knowing what to do, or if you're doing okay. It's also about having voices in you're head just saying stuff to you, keeping you down, keeping you upset, and keeping you unsure of what you are.

Musically this song is just a lot of acoustic guitars layered on top of each other and lots of harmony with the vocals, and it has really cozy vibes and I enjoy it very much.

Track 6 - Fake Out - R.L. Kelloy

This song was written by Eric Livingston and is about a "soft black thing" (that I assume to be negativity, perhaps depression), and how it will envelop them, and it will infect all their friends like a desease. Although I think apart from that the lyrics are quite interesting and beautiful and I'm not too sure how to describe them so I will leave them here

my friends do not know
about the soft black thing inside me
when I am talking to them, while I am sleeping
It floats next to my bed

it is not for any of them
soon they will start to see it
when I kiss them they will feel it
protrude into them

and when they are laying next to me
they will feel the warmth of it

nothing is keeping me from it
and I know one day there will be nothing left that anyone can do for me
it will become me
it will envelop me completely

This song much like lots of RL's songs is very lofi and contains lots of layer guitars, and quite simplistic percussion and lots of harmonized vocals that fit the music really well and I think she has an amazing grasp on how this song should sound and it's (in my opinion) the best song of the EP and a great ending to this great EP

Thank you for reading through my whole little review/overview/blog thing of this really cool EP made by two artists I really enjoy listening to, I'd very much recommend you listen to more of RL's music HERE

Have a great rest of your day:)