Shalisa Taylor EP
With the release of her self-titled EP, Stockholm-based singer/songwriter Shalisa Taylor establishes her potential to become a household name in the Scandinavian acoustic pop scene. Her performance evokes associations to memorable vocal icons like Adele combined with the soulful pop-infused production of Swedish artists like Miriam Bryant.
The EP is a set of reflections on the unexpected inner conflicts of romance, accompanied at times by piano-driven sounds or an acoustic guitar. A solid soul ensemble completes the selection, supporting the vocals through the most climatic moments.
Taylor’s classy, reserved approach to songwriting is combined with a vocal timelessness that seems to have found a home in her creative decisions for this EP. Since her exploration on complex love experiences can’t be reduced to a single choice of words, a variety of acoustic combinations was needed to convey the contrasting character of the tracks.
The impressions depicted on songs like “Understand” can’t be summarized with the usual love song tags: Saying it’s just a “break up song” wouldn’t make justice to the all the inner contradictions and unnamed emotions Taylor puts under scrutiny on the piano-based track.
The vocal performance reaches its peak on the soul-influenced “Dying to Live” and “Perfectly Incomplete”, the latter conveying an equally rich internal conflict. Shalisa Taylor describes it as “The bittersweet feeling of knowing what you’re putting yourself through won’t hold for the long run, but for right now you don’t want to change anything at all, in fear of what might happen if you do.”.
Also included in the EP is “Yours to Keep”, a guitar-based track that constituted Taylor’s debut with Rexius Records in 2018. The peculiar song-confession of not being in love with a person, but the idea of love, earned Taylor the attention of the Scandinavian Soul blog and audiences across Europe and USA. Shalisa Taylor’s self-titled EP will be released on January 18th.
Cover art by: Albert Frykman