React & Review: AURORA - What Happened To The Heart?
The album of my Dreams?
To be quite honest, I thought it might be a while before I heard another AURORA album. I have many other things on my list that I’ve been meaning to get around. My feelings for A Different Kind Of Human (Step II) were generally positive. But I don’t think I was expecting to really fall in love with that album in the way that I did. I play it at least once or twice a week now. It’s just an album that I vibe with on a deeper level.
So I guess I shouldn’t be too terribly surprised I’m reviewing yet another AURORA album in such a short span. But we all have our favorites I suppose and I shouldn’t assume that I’ll fall in love with this one as well. There are plenty of artists where I love just one album and not really vibe with any other.
But I’m rambling on for way too long now. Let’s get into my first reactions and full review of AURORA’s What Happened To The Heart?
Echo Of My Shadow
Wow. I’m only a minute into the track but her vocals are exceptional. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she’s definitely showing off range that I haven’t really heard from her before.
That second verse is quite spacious. I wanna say that’s a harp that gets introduced but I can’t be quite sure. But it has all of its top end cut off and much of its low end as well with a ton of reverb added. It gives it an overall luscious and intimate sound. The synth coming out of the left channel is giving similar vibes, too.
Looks like I was wrong, sounds like that’s just an acoustic guitar and its definition is slowly getting resolved as the track progresses.
Oh my god, that second chorus is to die for. That drum kit with only its low frequencies present is so good. It’s a great contrast to her vocals and the rest of the instrumentation.
The outro to this is so... angelic. I suppose it fits the title of the track as the song echoes out.