I think I’m in love.
Amber Ojeda has completely captured my heart and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I guess it helped, when watching the music video for their single ‘Lost in the Middle’, that Ojeda bears a striking resemblance to the lovely Zooey Deschanel but it wasn’t just the ‘puppy dog eyes’- Ojeda’s voice is ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ delicious capturing perfectly the sensuality of her lyrics while teasing with the innocence of a teenager.
Undoubtedly, the beauty of her melodious voice is brought out thanks Ojeda teaming up with the other half of the duo – Davy Nathan. The songwriting pair created the perfect accompaniments to Ojeda’s outpouring of her heart as she admits on The Lift website:
‘Lost in the Middle’
“Sometimes songs can course through you before you have a chance to censor yourself. “The Lift” began with one song… that ultimately led us to share the entire truth behind my failing relationships.”
Amber Ojeda certainly does this with touching and painful honesty. Confessing herself a “hopeless romantic” you can’t help thinking she’s destined to continue making tragic mistakes, engage in doomed love affairs and producing magnificently haunting music as a result. They say that ‘less is more’ but these five songs left me with a craving for a full album which I hope Nathan and Ojeda will produce before long. Is it wrong of me to wish her more failures in love to make sure this happens?
Although all tracks are very much ballad-like and deal with the theme of love lost (and perhaps innocence misplaced?) nevertheless the flavor of each is very different. ‘Make Me Believe’, for instance, is a wonderful chilled-out Jazz ballad similar to the style of Norah Jones while ‘In The Night’ seems a more innocent Lana Del Ray style of song with Ojeda’s sultry and sexy voice dripping with innocence.
My favorite track, however, must be ‘Why I Stayed’. From the eerie synth opening onwards, this is a strange and haunting track which is exquisite and perfectly produced. I come away disturbed by the feeling that this was something that was always going to come to an end without ever really knowing what ‘this’ actually was. The song oozes inevitable regret which is almost too much to bear.
The duo had a superb production team create the EP. Too many names to mention but the stars they’ve worked with reads like a who’s who of the cream of the crop. You know when you have people who’ve worked with Eric Clapton, Lana Del Ray, Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera and Selena Gomez (to name but a few) that this is going to be a perfectly crafted piece of art – and, like Amber Ojeda herself, it is just that.
