Cambridgeshire, England-based Ellie Walker’s The Balance EP is a four-song success, weaving intimate indie-folk charm with heart-on-sleeve pop elements. Across its tracks, Walker explores resilience, love, and personal reflection, crafting a warm, immersive sound full of emotional depth. The EP’s opener “Balance” caught our ears earlier this year, unveiling a folk/pop synergy that swelled into an immersive blend of trumpets, recorders, and all-out effervescence. Warming lyrical accounts of family and fortitude persist within the jangly, radiant production. The release’s three other tracks prove equally compelling.
“The Old Oak” unfolds from stately piano and steady vocal introspection into a magnetic, emotional expanse. “I have watched as life passes me by,” Walker lets out, complemented by mellow guitars as the vocals push into a “just hold on” soaring invigoration. The songwriting excels here in navigating through mental health and resilience, the latter echoed in that heart-aching refrain.
The ensuing “Let Me Go” is another success, beckoning to “let me go” amidst contemplations on the finality of goodbyes; backing wordless vocal harmonies are especially affecting past the one-minute turn. EP finale “One Day” intertwines piano and lulling textures into a brightened “who will take me home?” repetition — achieving a luminous folk-pop spirit. The track was written from the perspective of Emma Morley from David Nicholls’ One Day. Walker says that the closing track “gave me the chance to speak through Emma’s voice, but also to acknowledge parts of my own past. It’s about the moment you realise love isn’t enough, and the bravery it takes to decide to stop being someone’s secret.”
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We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
