Oh Wonder release their long-awaited, self-produced album, No One Else Can Wear Your Crown which shows off flawless vocal arrangements, strong messages of self-acceptance and empowerment within a sea of beautiful instrumental breaks.
Fans all over the world are thanking Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht for sharing their talents and coming together to form, Oh Wonder. The album kicks off with the inspiring track Dust, all about accepting your unique individualism, touting a strong message of not letting people get you down. Coming straight in with the lyrics “When people try to get you down, remember that I’m here for you”, the inevitable rapport grows stronger and stronger between Oh Wonder and their fans.
Nicely followed by Happy, Anthony and Josephine’s calming voices make each song easy to keep on repeat. Happy spreads good vibes with the off-beat accompaniment in the catchy chorus to make you want to dance and celebrate the achievement of getting over someone you never thought you’d be able to.
We then get blessed with the slower song Better Now; the nostalgic tracks in this album including Nebraska, Nothing But You and I wish I Never Met You, all contain beautiful instrumental moments with perfect piano harmonies, string additions and spacey moments. All four songs include unique elements to personalise their inner thoughts. Demonstrating this, the pauses in Better Now allow time to digest the emotion, something which immediately grabs the listeners attention.
Hallelujah takes a different approach, a song about proving people wrong and following your dreams. The motivational string sections bring hope to the audience and the bass and drum addition to specific moments allows you to envision the performance in a live setting. Easy to learn the lyrics, you can almost hear the passionate screams of the words coinciding with the enthusiastic claps to each beat. Every transition tells a different chapter of the story, a feel-good song full of ambition.
Drunk On You uses groovy rhythms to create an environment that represents the night out portrayed in this song. The stripped-back bridge sings “It doesn’t feel like I just met you, it’s like I know you, better hold my feelings back, because I just met you and I don’t want to get ahead of myself”, is then cleverly followed by a fast-paced string section which pushes the song and illustrates her heart racing after she realises she has fallen him. An artistic detail too pure to brush over.
No One Else Can Wear Your Crown is a perfect collection of songs to fulfil every mood whilst completely excelling all expectations and creating a masterpiece.
Score: 4/5
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