Photo: Joel Palmer

Connie Constance – Miss Power

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Connie Constance has been an unsung darling of the industry ever since she joined the music scene. With vocals that can only be described as unbelievable and lyrics that beyond building a narrative create a series of incredibly beautiful and heartfelt images that transport you to a different world, Connie captured the ears of many with her first projects. From English Rose to The Butterfly Club and Prim & Propa, the young singer managed to grow her brand and unique sound very distinctively. However, it wasn’t until her new album Miss Power that we felt that the rising star had figured out exactly what she wanted to do, without hesitation and without anybody holding her back.

Having parted ways with her previous label and taking back the reigns of her music career as an independent artist, the presentation of Miss Power certainly marks a new milestone that sees Connie fully realized as an intrinsic songwriter with an ear for the melodic and maybe a little taste for controlled chaos. The new album is full of experimentation — a term that, by association, is condoned as overly artsy but in the context of this album should be equated to breathtakingly mind-blowing.

With twists and turns in every song, Connie manages to uninterruptedly capture the attention of a generation which is constantly criticised for their short attention spam. One would go as far as to say she not only surprises us with her songcraft but also introduces us to things we never really know we needed in songs that we automatically expect to end one way that still somehow have huge plot spins that only Connie can make them make sense for us.

Having been mixed as one single body of work, Miss Power opens with the track “In the Beginning,” an etherial-feeling tale that’s actually quite unexpected having seen the artwork and heard the first single. From the beginning, she sets the tone with impeccable harmonies that put together build a very cohesive semi-spoken-word piece. Immediately after, we are moved into “Til The World’s Awake,” a dynamic masterpiece that somewhat hints at her previous works yet brings something completely new to the table. With organic sounds splashed everywhere across the album, there’s huge constant which are the addictive guitar riffs that take a backseat to her hypnotising vocals. With “Mood Hoover” and “Hurt You,” the album certainly has an indie disco facet, however, there’s so many sides to this album, it’s hard to place it in one genre.

All of a sudden, we’re taken aback by the rush of punk influences in tracks like “Miss Power,” “Blank Canvas” and the massively unexpected yet somehow perfectly fitting “Kamikaze.” In the style of Willow, this track will certainly get you up on your feet and it is guarantied to be the most cathartic moment of the live show — expect moshpits and people screaming their lungs out to it.

To round everything up, another side of the album is revealed in the track “Yuck,” an over 5 min long tender rendition of a love letter to Great Britain. Borderlining in melancholic tones, the song plays with multiple themes and sounds ultimately glued together by the modulation and emotion transmitted by an almost spoken word-y delivery.

Miss Power is undoubtably the proof that Connie Constance can certainly do it all. Seamlessly she jumps from soft songs with carefully curated harmonies to overly distorted vocals with loud liberating punk screams to conversational verses which just make you wish she was the voice inside your head. Connie’s unique POV and brilliant way of thinking allowed for this album, which could seem chaotic on paper, to be a beautiful coming-into-self declaration. All we can say is, we cannot wait to be blown off our feet with whatever she has coming next.