Voice notes are arguably one of the best tech features to come out in the last five years. With our growing disdain for picking up and holding the phone for prolonged amounts of time, introducing your voice into messages adds personality to texts that can be often taken out of context. Whether it’s on Hinge or iMessage, you get the unfiltered emotions good or bad through voice notes, and Alex Vaughn tapped into this raw feeling on her latest project, Voice Notes EP.
Alex Vaughn caught her first taste of virality with her song “Mirage” earlier this year. The PG County songstress had listeners reciting “stop hallucinating over lame a** n*****” at the top of their lungs or lip-synced as a viral sound on TikTok. “Mirage” is undoubtedly popular because of its relatability and Voice Notes captures the same complex feelings of even more complicated relationships. Diverting from synths and percussion, Vaughn lets her raw vocals and classically trained piano skills shine on this three-track EP. Her creative process usually follows the same routine, recording songs behind the piano as voice memos and then re-recording them in the studio. Vaughn skips the last step on this project, keeping the original form to evoke the strongest emotion.
The Next One
“The Next One” is the opener and sets the tone of the project. Over simple piano chords, Vaughn is dealing with her recent heartbreak. The song follows the process of meeting a manipulative partner and falling in love. While staying in an unsavory relationship because of pride and fear of repeating the cycle, Vaughn sings of becoming broken for her next potential relationship.
“I’m not giving up because I’m not a quitter/ You gotta understand why I’m a little bitter”
Alex Vaughn “The Next One”
Backslide
At one minute and sixteen seconds, the shortest on the project, Alex Vaughn gets straight to the point on “Backslide”. She sings of accepting true love and the willingness to endure anything that comes with it.
“Baby you’re the weatherman, so let’s just let it rain”
Alex Vaughn “Backslide”
Junkie
With an effective opening line, “I know I got a problem so, don’t tell me because I already know”, a song titled “Junkie” closes Voice Notes. Vaughn sings of an unhealthy love; she wants to heal but is scared to try. Addicted to the person or addicted to love, this song shows the tumultuous parts of attachment that “Backside” sets up. Vaughn’s vocal volumes and acrobatics are more complex and chaotic, emulating the morally polarizing point of view of a ‘junkie’ who is aware of their addiction.
“Can you show me how to fly?/ I just want to be in the sky”
Alex Vaughn “Junkie”
Voice Notes EP is intimate, not only sonically, but in the subject matter. Alex Vaughn states, “My voice notes will always be my first soundboard and favorite diary.” After making waves as an independent singer-songwriter Vaughn, now with LVRN records, is taking her soulful self-analysis to the next level. Last month, she opened up for Summer Walker in Atlanta and this month, you can catch her at Broccoli City Festival in D.C.
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