Grace Avery VanderWaal (born January 15, 2004) is an American singer, songwriter and ukuleleist from Suffern, New York. In 2016, at age 12, she won the eleventh season of the NBC TV competition show America’s Got Talent. She soon signed a record deal and has continued to perform.
Let’s say ‘Hello!’ to her first EP entitled Perfectly Imperfect.
Track list:
I Don’t Know My Name
Clay
Light The Sky
Beautiful Thing
Gossip Girl
I will disect this EP for better elaboration.
Title
I think the title of this EP is good. Perfectly Imperfect. It suits the whole theme of the EP, but I find it so simple and common. The whole EP is packed with advanced metaphor for a 12 year old girl, and now you got a really simplistic title. I think it’s a good title, but it could have been better.
Sound
The sound is very Grace VanderWaal sound, the same Grace we witnessed at the competition. On the other hand, it’s not cohesive. Her voice made it cohesive but not the production. Gossip Girl is a standout track, I Don’t Know My Name is a good start. It is good but the consistency is not present.
Lyrics
Impressive. Really Impressive. I think she got an advance writing skills. They compare her to Taylor Swift but I think her songwriting capability is better compare to Swift’s songwriting when she was in her age. There are some good figurative language in it, it connects to the listener and it’s honest.
Vocals
This time, it’s matter of preference but she got pipes. In this EP, this is very her. Every piece of note is her. The vocal breaks also helps to the transition and conveying the emotions. Even though Gossip Girl is my favorite track in it, it got a really unhealthy technique. The rasp might helped it, but it is a sign of a bad technique especially at her age. I don’t recommend her singing it live a lot. What I am curious about is, will her voice evolve? Will her voice make her future releases different from earlier releases? We gotta find out.
I think what I like about these songs is, it’s very honest. It means she’s braver than any other artist out there who has Hot 100 no.1s. There might be some flaws in it, but we need to give her a huge credit for writing these songs. A 12 year old girl whose world is about being herself but she chose to share that part of her life with us and I think that’s a lot. So we have to give credit not only for her songwriting but for her brave heart.
It’s not perfect for commercial release. It has some flaws, but a good start for a first release. A good one.
Title:
4 out of 5
Sound:
3 out of 5
Lyrics:
5 out of 5
Vocals:
4 out of 5
Average: 4
Favorite Track: Gossip Girl
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