Veronica Everheart, after nearly two years, has released an incredible new EP Lighter in the Morning: Part 1. Before you dive in, you should be warned that this is not your normal, run-of-the-mill EP. Everheart has crafted a body of work unlike practically anything coming out of the music industry right now. With unapologetic female rage, technically equisite production, a genre transcending sound, and punch-in-the-gut lyricism, Everheart is redefining what music can be and, consequentially, the meaning of art.
Let’s Start Lyrically.
Some people forget that anger is just as powerful an emotion as sadness – as is regret. However, not Everheart. In fact, the entire album is actually quite heartbreaking when you listen to her voice sing raw, gut-punching lyrics like “After all, / You’ll carry on / As if it’s my turn to fix it,” and “I’ll reach for you / but my body is / 15 steps behind my mind,” and “My body / Depleted. / You don’t ask / How I’m feelin‘.”
The beautiful thing about the sound production throughout the EP is that, despite having a more electronic or radio sound in terms of instrumentals, the lyrics shine. Her voice feels so unfiltered and unmanipulated that you focus on what she is singing. Every line hits you and forces you to listen.
A major theme throughout the EP is that which a lot of people can relate to: feeling unheard, unappreciated, and small. But Everheart takes that theme and finds way to manipulate it into something so powerful. The EP, while carrying that central theme throughgout, beautifully twists into a story of fighting back against those feelings – loudly and apologetically.
The Power Of An ‘Angry’ Woman
Indie Sad Girl is a ‘genre’ of music that most people know and can probably name artists off the top of their head (Love you, Phoebe Bridgers). And while Everheart lyrically could fit that category, she does something deeply moving with this album and explores female rage instead.
“Microcosm”, the first song off the EP, is 2 minutes and 35 minutes of what that feels like. Everheart starts off a bit soft, simply explaining the story. Then, without warning, the anger peaks through and it settles into the song – into Everheart – eventually exploding into a loud, emotional ending of just genuine screaming. It is absolutely incredible. When she does ‘calm down’, it is to give herself the beautiful affirmation that she got from The Sun: “It’s lighter in the morning / And love will still remain. / You will still remain.“
For the rest of the EP, the emotion behind Everhearts voice is so clearly present and, even if she isn’t screaming, there is a power. She opens with a song that grabs your attention in a way that women have learned they need to. And it works so beautifully. It is an incredible, poetic display of emotional music in a new and invigorating way.
Indie? Techno? Pop-Punk?
One of my favorite things about this EP is its lack of definition. Structurally, every song works together to create a very clear, distinctly Veronica Everheart sound. But that sound is something that is so distinctly her, that is simply does not fit into any category currently out there. Which feels incredibly exciting.
Everheart and Junius Karr, who Everheart credits as a big inspiration for her sound and her artistry, have opened up an entirely new world of music with this album. They’ve taken vulnerable lyrics into a digital, dynamic sound and, when you listen to the album, every moment feels sonically surprising. It shines a light on the subjectivity of art and illuminates this idea that art is never just one thing and it doesn’t have to be.
Lighter in the Morning: Part 1 from Veronica Everheart is a masterpiece. It is raw and terrifyingly fresh – a body of work unlike anything I have ever heard. There is almost no way to describe how the album genuinely feels when you listen to it. It is more than an EP, it is more than a collection of songs, it is alive.
