Someplace between the emotional gravity of a cinematic piano pop ballad, a Broadway allegory of ache, and an easy-listening companion for the times when vulnerability feels somewhat too uncooked lies the most recent single, Protected and Sound, by the UK singer-songwriter Erin Hughes.
It’s a bruising exposition on what stays within the aftermath of abuse, a piece that refuses to show away from the burden of trauma. Hughes lays naked how ache clings to those that cared, whereas those that inflicted it stroll away unmarked, their shadows trailing however by no means catching them. The monitor carries that fact like a heavy stone, but its artistry offers the ache form, resonance, and readability.
Past the aural advantage of Protected and Sound, it features as a sermon of validation for survivors, holding area for anybody who is aware of what it feels wish to be stripped of security by somebody who as soon as claimed to care. The piano keys really feel like quiet confessions, the vocals rise with uncooked ache, and collectively they create a reminder that expression itself could be a type of sanctuary. It’s music that doesn’t soften the blow, however affords a hand to these nonetheless reeling.
Hughes has a forthcoming EP, Penny within the Jukebox, which can stretch these confessional threads additional throughout six songs tracing heartbreak’s myriad shades. By drawing on influences as wide-ranging as folks storytelling and the shadowed lyricism of Evanescence, she turns her lived expertise into artwork that speaks in unflinching honesty. Protected and Sound reveals her capacity to show the sharp fringe of reminiscence into one thing that may maintain listeners regular, even because it acknowledges the burden of loss.
Protected and Sound is now out there on all main streaming platforms, together with Spotify.Â
Evaluation by Amelia Vandergast