It’s been awhile since I’ve been utterly in love with an EP. But it's happened, and I am completely submerged in Ella Vos’s Watch and Wait. Each track is undeniably individualistic, while still outlining her extreme vocal power. All five tracks have so much meaning to them, still uncovering parts as I go. It strikes me how flawlessly Vos brings her vocals to incredible heights, and her lyrics to a notable depth. The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter pours her life and soul into this latest, and it’s breathtaking.
Watch and Wait follows in the footsteps of Vos’s critically acclaimed album Words I Never Said. A collection of tracks which granted her soundtrack features on multiple shows including Grey’s Anatomy, and over 200 million Spotify streams to date. For her EP, Vos has once again used personal experiences to fuel her creativity. Since releasing her first album, Vos was diagnosed and treated for lymphoma. Now in partial remission, Watch and Wait is a journal of her life through diagnosis, illness, and the handling of life throughout the positives and negatives.
The honesty and emotion in her tracks shines through – just a couple of the ingredients which makes them so wonderfully attractive. “Ocean” and “Castaway” hook listeners immediately. With rhythmic backdrops, Vos puts her expansive vocal range on display in each chorus.
“Temporary” is a track that specifically reflects Vos’s experience during her treatment. She says “‘it’s only temporary’ is what everyone would say to console me about my cancer diagnosis. It’s what I wanted to hear, whether I believed it or not. I used to think of it as a meaningless phrase, because no one really knows how long anything is going to last, be it happiness or sadness, good health or bad. My entire life felt like it was on hold, bound by the unknown. Over time, I started to see things differently, and saw that what I was going through was just temporary, I just had to look at things under a different light."
“Lonely Road” slows things down, leading with the strumming of an acoustic guitar. Vos’s voice soars, crooning “I can’t make it alone without you, ‘cause I’m lost on a lonely road”. It’s beautiful, it’s vulnerable, and it’s relatable. I’ve got tears in my eyes after that one. Followed by this is “Empty Hands”. It must be the mixture of both rawness and strength in Vos's voice that makes this the perfect track to close an album filled with these emotions.
For an artist who has overcome so much, physically and emotionally, she translates it expertly in these tracks. Check out her upcoming tour dates here.
Connect with Ella online: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Spotify
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