The stirring debut album from London-based artist Joseph Bell, Exploding Stars showcases a songwriter with a gift for pairing radiant melodies and dreamy productions with insightful self-reflection. The record shifts with ease between airy pop sparkle and moments of moody thoughtfulness, anchored by Bell’s engaging vocal presence and knack for hooky melodic unveilings.
“Take A Breath” opens the album with a smoothly inviting pop charm, where mellow key twinkling and twangy guitar delights intertwine with layers of vocal introspection. “Some days I’m scared I’ll self-destruct,” Bell’s vocals admit, driving into a title-beckoning call for taking a moment, rather than beating yourself up. Exploding Stars consistently enamors in its hooky pop songcraft, but also encouraging lyrical insight — which on “Take A Breath” treasures things like deep breaths and fresh air, rather than continuously striving for impossible perfection.
The album’s highlights continue consistently from there. “Under Stars” is a particularly enveloping piece of songwriting, evolving from a first-half array of mellow folk-pop dreaminess — echoing a distance from one’s comfort zone, thematically — into a blissfully textured progression into the “lying under the stars” descriptor and heightened concluding vocal power. “Stories In My Mind” is another standout, exuding a starry-eyed pop appeal in the “pick up the problems later” arrival into a harmonious central hook. Exploding Stars is a moving album from Joseph Bell, whose ability to intertwine emotively impactful lyricism with serenely hooky pop soundscapes is prevalent from start to finish.
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“Take A Breath” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
