Echo Wants Her Voice Back – “Wife” – near-minimalism with maximum impact!
Echo Wants Her Voice Back or simply Echo, is a Cypriot born, London based artist, whose musical creativity is strongest when she applies layers of her spectral, unforgettable voice and incisive lyricism to recognizable organic-driven instrumental motifs, which she subtly twists into engaging earworms snatched from the honesty and integrity of her vision. This happens on her new single, “Wife”, released on Friday the 21st of May. The song, co-written with Labrini Grigoriadou, lead guitarist of highly influential Greek singer/songwriter/poet Aggelakas, unravels as soon as it digs into a groove.
Since her self-released debut EP in 2015, and then performing at the 2016 South by Southwest Festival, Echo Wants Her Voice Back has released a series of singles and videos on YouTube. She’s navigated multiple styles – each one highly captivating – where she always brings a certain degree of comfort, no matter what soundscape she has in support of her voice. In “Blue Lament”, for example she even performs without backing, in the acapella ballad.
“Wife”, described as a tongue-in-cheek song about love and its fluidity, displays all of Echo’s rupturing creative and performance prosperity, as she transitions between a whisper and a soar, within a dynamic acoustic pop setting.
The song is full of strummed and picked acoustic guitars, Echo’s scaling voice, and little else. The simple but highly effective instrumentation, allows Echo’s blend of haunting and wistful vocals to fully occupy the space, undisturbed.
Echo’s vocal tone conveys a lifetime of experiences and observations. You don’t have to think long to identify subjects and messages in her narratives. This also applies to “Wife” which unfolds all of it intricacies, contexts and connotations, line after line. Echo Wants Her Voice Back is a singular artist, someone who walks her own musical way. Being a distinctive stylist means she can create evocative moments within unconventional arrangements.
Regardless from where she sources the topics of her songwriting, Echo’s voice makes her songs sound like they were born from a moment of affliction or joy, which is uniquely her own. That’s not only the mark of a great songwriter, but the certified stamp of an impressive performer and interpreter.
The fact that “Wife” was co-written, emphasizes that point. Echo’s songs are always underpinned by a sharp sense of melody and lyrics that combine the personal with the universally relatable.
There’s no question that Echo’s voice can convey both vulnerability and power in spades. Throughout “Wife”, Echo Wants Her Voice Back feels in total command of the song, while being brilliantly supported by Labrini Grigoriadou’s superb acoustic guitar playing, as well as mixing and mastering work. It’s hard to find any singles of a similar personality and sound to “Wife” currently, and perhaps this is what Echo Wants Her Voice Back should be commended for most.
“Wife” is a distinctly perfect expression of near-minimalism with maximum impact, where each word is imbued with every ounce of Echo Wants Her Voice Back’s performance skills.
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