Album/EP Review: Ella Galvin's "The Way It Goes"

New York City-based artist Ella Galvin’s debut EP, “The Way It Goes,” is an enjoyable pop music experience. In her debut EP, released June 14, 2024, Galvin mixes her soul and jazz influences with bubblegum pop to create songs that encapsulate the feeling of summer. The title track, in particular, feels best enjoyed blasting from a boom box on a hot summer day. It made me picture a day on the beach, or maybe a picnic in a park full of people and life. Still, the lyrics in Galvin’s songs go deeper than a carefree summer feeling. At the root of it all, these are songs about being young in 2024. There is an attempt to hold on to the carelessness youth is supposed to have, supported by the bouncy beats and jazzy musicality that are especially evident in Galvin’s title track and in Passing the Time. Meanwhile, the lyrics betray the anxieties present in modern young people. The title track states: “I always feel the best with the worst I find/The rhythm starts of right but the grooves off time.” In Passing The Time, Galvin croons these words through a jazz band’s trumpet blasts: “Feel like my life is a montage/I've regressed to autopilot…I’ll never get signed to a label …Only got the devil on my shoulder no angel.” The contrast between the upbeat music and the often sad lyrics makes the EP instantly relatable to the zeitgeist of modern youth culture.

This vulnerability of Galvin is present in the other songs on the EP, but nowhere more predominantly than in Spare Me. In this song, the instrumentation is minimal. An acoustic guitar accompanies the singer, but there is little else. Her vocals are so important to the song, in fact, that there is a layered effect over them. It sounds as if she is singing from two mouths, a chorus effect that feels like a vocal punch in the face. In the song, Galvin sings about an unrequited crush. There is a feeling of what might’ve been, no, what might be. She misses someone who she will never have enough time to know. He leaves on a flight tomorrow, and she wishes she could love him. It’s minimal, sweet, and dripping with complex, unrequited feelings.

All in all, “The Way It Goes” is an enjoyable listen. The songs are captivating, and Galvin’s jazz and R&B influences are in full display. It’s a great debut, and I am excited to see what she creates in the future.