“Hold on as everything changes.”
After winning season 14 of The Voice, American pop singer/songwriter Brynn Cartelli embarked on the wild ride of a rise to fame. She took the crown in 2018, followed her coach Kelly Clarkson on the Meaning of Life Tour in 2019, released the EP Based on a True Story in 2021, and joined OneRepublic as a special guest on their Never Ending Summer Tour in 2022. On the first of this month, Cartelli released her debut studio album, OUT OF THE BLUE, which quickly hit number eight on the iTunes Pop Album Chart.
Just 15 years old when she took on America’s big stage, now 20 years old with an album to her name, Cartelli has faced new complexities on top of everything that comes with girlhood. OUT OF THE BLUE is a symbol of growth, whether that means in a relationship, in leaving home, in making a career, in getting older, or in an emotional sense. Cartelli is able to capture every use of this idiom through her valuable pop lyricism and heart-melting vocals.
As Cartelli says hello to a career in music, she must also say goodbye to familiar faces. In her song “Beginning Of The End” Cartelli is “Trying to hold on as everything changes.” She searches for the ghost of an old relationship while “Running from the one in my mind.” Starting her album with this track is strategic, knowing well that with every end comes a new beginning. This album marks the end of fatal love and the start of something she’s prepared for from a young age.
The unpreparable costs of moving head-first from a dream to reality have put Cartelli on a tightrope. Her ballad “Fine Line” speaks deeper on the pain of leaving loved ones and looking to new horizons; “My friends from home are calling me / To say they miss me, and to ask how I’ve been / But I never know what to say / How do I tell them I’m about to break?” With different expectations for herself and her future, Cartelli must leave space to be less than perfect, to be “a bit of a mess,” or else she will break.
Other heartbroken sagas like “Secondhand Smoke,” “Leader” and “Boy From Home” display Cartelli’s classical vocal strength which lets in just enough rasp to add exciting texture. In the gloomy track “Darker Days,” Cartelli sits with feelings of sadness and sympathy for lost hope. “Hanging on to a lightning bolt,” she yearns to get out of an all-consuming blue.
Cartelli is also sure to include fun love songs, like “Lucky To Love You,” “Girl Code,” “Convertible In The Rain,” “Watching My Friends Fall In Love” and her first pre-released single, “Gemini.” In “Gemini” Cartelli is “Falling back into [her] patterns.” She is in love with a boy “Born in May, June, or July,” and this is not the first time. Reflective of her past experience, Cartelli “Know[s] how this story ends.” So, the song concludes with her decision that she “Could never be with a Gemini.”
One song in particular is a clear reveal of Cartelli’s musical inspiration. “Running In Place” sounds reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s album 1989, both opening with a lyrical ode to New York – Cartelli’s current home. This track is “Trying to find an escape” amidst a fast-paced city. The melody and production are comparable to Swift’s song “Out Of The Woods” which is similarly built to feel cyclical and stuck. Both of these choruses utilize repetition with little resolution and promote a light at the end of the tunnel, a reachable clearness. Additionally, their hooks are synonymous in using “the woods” and “the blue” to describe caging conditions.
Cartelli’s lead single “The Blue” is a story of the unexpected. Although it references the end of a relationship, this song sums up the album thematically. Starting with “You came out of the blue,” Cartelli is building new grounds with someone. The lyrics then transition to “We came out of the blue” as Cartelli helps lift this person out of pain. At the end of the song, the lyrics change again to “It came out of the blue” referencing the breakup, and Cartelli wonders why everything changed.
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