British songstress Rae Morris might be only nineteen years old, but her rapid rise over the past few years has shot her unique voice and exceptional style of melancholic pop into view worldwide. Her recent single, “Under The Shadows,” is yet another elegant example of her songwriting and incredibly powerful and emotive vocals.
With a brand of pop music that comparable to that of Ellie Goulding or even the powerhouse of Kate Bush, Morris provides a welcome break from modern day pop’s constant output of generic tunes. She shows that a pop song really can have not only genuine talent, but also some real emotional depth to it.
“I feel alive!” Morris’ chants in her pulsing, melodious ode to love, loss and freedom. With a voice as distinctive as that of the young singer it’s hard to make comparisons. There’s a touch of Imogen Heap in her low pulling lyricism, but the singer really is branching out into her own style and letting it develop as her goes along. The amazing thing about discovering an artist and this point in their career is that you get to see the progression of their music as they grow and learn. Many of Morris’s early song revolved much more around piano and acoustic sounds, but recent songs like this one and other tracks “Cold” and “Do You Even Know?” have a far more electronic nature, leaning heavily on electric drumbeats.
A slightly darker beat underpins Morris’ hummed and breathy harmonies. Between the two a mix of chiming instruments, drums and echoes build the landscape for the moody ballad. Morris’ voice is a marvel, deep and rich, before rising to ethereal pitches. There’s a very rhythmic feel to this song that make it’s sound almost recited (in a good way), like a poem learnt off by heart and recited in a sing-song voice. Then the bridge kicks in and the song lifts to a whole new heavenly level, lamenting what may be the loss of a love affair, or the loss of an understanding of your very own identity.
This song is an elusive creature. The artfully made, beautifully presented pop song of an insanely talented young singer. If this is what Rae Morris is achieving at nineteen then who knows were time will take her, and what artistic style her music will evolve into next.