EP REVIEW: Ina Wroldsen Sets Fires With New EP ‘MATTERS OF THE MIND’
EP REVIEW: Ina Wroldsen Sets Fires With New EP ‘MATTERS OF THE MIND’
Ina Wroldsen is truthful, uncensored, and unapologetically herself.
Words By: Brianna Vacca
Bonafide critically-acclaimed and award-winning singer/songwriter, Ina Wroldsen is manifestly becoming a household name. She’s solidifying this feat with the release of her newest EP Matters of the Mind. She has found multi-platinum success within her own indelible songs and has penned a multitude of crowning hits for Calvin Harris, Clean Bandit, Anne Marie, Jax Jones, and more accumulating seven billion streams. BMI + ASCAP awards, Spellemann, the Norweigan-GRAMMY award, a BRIT Award Nomination all lie under the songwriter’s belt for all the right reasons.
Matters of the Mind, released via Sony Music Norway, is pivotal. The songstress’ list of merits all lives up to the truth. The EP is stained with authenticity, the kind that is hard to keep. The singer’s four-track portfolio shows off an element of bedroom-pop blended with sinuous r&b stylings. “More” introduces the body of work with a lustrous appetite for wanting more. Pop makings are heavily focused on but don’t drown out Wroldsen’s delicate vocals. The weight of her lyrics is emotion-filled and obviously clear through the singer/songwriter’s vocal distinction.
“We Are Gonna Live“ chases “More” and is more upbeat in nature. The song has been sitting on Spotify’s Top 100 Playlist since its’ singular debut. It’s a present-day island-pop assemblage conjugated with arpeggiated synths and thread percussion that is in vogue. Its message delves into the take that things are going to be okay in the end. This life is short, some days will be ungodly tiring, but in the end, what you make of it is what matters.
The ending smoothly glides into the project’s third track “Matters.” The song communicates an á la mode r&b offering embedding a dichotomy between this new sound and old-school conventional rhythm and blues. The percussion is palpitating supporting Wroldsen’s stacked vocals as she waves goodbye to everybody’s expectations of her.
“Fires,” written during a songwriting session in Los Angeles, depicts motherhood’s premonition of her child hightailing to their own independence. In her case, her baby boy William. There’s an ode to her own parents inserted within lyrics as well such as, “I’m gathering wood, I’m cutting down trees, I’m keeping it dry like my father taught me,” and later on in the song, “I’m knocking down lines, I’m stealing myself like my mother taught me.” Produced by Edvard Erfjord, “Fires” is akin to U.S-based artists Alessia Cara, Hailee Steinfeld, Halsey, and infuses the structure that a beloved pop song often contains.
Wroldsen spills about the song, “A child is this amazing gift, but they’re only on loan. We spend their childhoods in preparation, preparing them for life, and preparing ourselves for the day they will leave us,” the singer adds, “I make sure I have enough firewood so he can see my flame wherever in the world he finds himself. I need for him to know that there is warmth, acceptance, and safety at home with the people who love him the best. ‘Fires’ is for my William… for him to know that there will always be a safe harbor with us for him to return to wherever life may take him. And if he is ever in doubt, then Imma light fires, so you can find me. Imma light fires.”
International success, sky-high streaming numbers, achieved records, and awards don’t hold much weight for Wroldsen. What’s important is the art of the craft as she confesses, “It’s not about writing a hit, but telling a story, expressing something true through the lyrics and the melody.”
The release of Matters of the Mind befalls on the same night of the finale of Norway’s The Voice where Wroldsen is a coach tonight, May 28th, 2021.
