feeo delivers an eclectic collection of tracks in debut EP ‘feels like we’re getting older doesn’t it’
All it takes is four songs to get you hooked to the enchanting feeo
Photo: Emily Roberts
It may be the first time you’ve come across experimental neo-soul artist feeo, but it just takes one listen to her music to put you in a trance. The Oxfordshire singer-producer serves the world with her debut EP feels like we’re getting older doesn’t it which will take listeners on a transcendental journey.
As you make your way through each song, you will feel the artist’s intention — the thought of impending doom. Though she explores a theme so dark, the ethereal soundscape along with feeo’s sultry vocals will bind you to the record.
Four tracks, each flowing into the next, dwell on the idea of preparing for the end, the inevitable that nobody can escape. She believes that “as soon as life begins, it walks its way towards ending and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it.”
As we move from one track to the next, we are edging towards the end — the sense of doom grows from start to finish. Deriving sounds from jazz, reggae and folk with unconventional storytelling submerged in hazy tones, big beats and stacked harmonies, feeo finds a unique voice in London’s neo-soul scene.
Opening track Memento Mori sets the pace for what’s to come. feeo’s voice glides through the song. “I’m just a ghost with an exterior,” she sings over layered vocals and spectral sounds. She constantly reminds the listener of the inevitable, of mortality:
“My body outlives my life”
The following track blue river running sonically feels like an extension of Memento Mori. Here, feeo creeps into the life of a doomed and tortured soul: “There’s a thundercloud following you around / in the space where your halo was found.” Lyrically, this track will haunt you, intertwined with otherworldly tones and feeo’s resonant voice.
This dark mystical piece paves way for the EP’s title track feels like we’re getting older doesn’t it. In this track, feeo pauses her thoughts of destruction and doom to realize her feelings for a person she may love. “Are we in love? / Or is it just the drugs, babe?” she wonders. The subtle distortion in the music builds an uneasy tension. There may be an apocalypse, but the matters of the heart will never cease to exist. As feeo drenches our ears with this sensual track, we too are lost in the fleeting moments of love.
“I’ll get lost in you / You can get lost in me / Being lost is a bit like being free, isn’t it?”
In the visuals accompanying the track, created and performed by feeo herself, she uses it as a means of self-expression, flashing lights on her face and body as she mouths the lyrics, while a CGI figure slowly reveals itself through the song.
She concludes her EP with the End Song — a piece that touches on subjects such as when “Eve was roaming around in Eden” to “the new god we call consumerism”. feeo refers to the world as a “sinking ship”. She asks the listeners to not get her wrong and that she enjoys the “poetry in how we just create and destroy” but it’s time that we end this constant cycle. She is “waiting for the world to end”. We all have that moment in our lives when things are bad, and all we want is for everything to end. This track is a testimony to that feeling. Her voice resonates through the lyrics with a glistening texture.
‘feels like we’re getting older doesn’t it’ is a stunning record from emerging Neo-soul artist feeo. Her music speaks for itself and will make you wonder too, for she is here to stay.
‘feels like we’re getting older doesn’t it’ is now out via Upcycled Sounds.