Deeper and deeper and down we go into the world of Evil Felipe, an all-female group from central Massachusetts, who makes you remember ghosts of past loves while simultaneously making you wash them away like sweet summer rain.
Evil Felipe‘s latest album, Into The Ivy, is an eleven-track, no-skip collection that brings up deep-rooted emotion through slow vibes and raw vocals. This most recent addition to Evil Felipe’s discography brings listeners through a journey of the band’s struggles with unfair yet lingering love they can’t seem to part with. Into The Ivy is the kind of album you need for window-down sunset drives on the highway with friends or late-night chats around a bag of chips in your bedroom. While the whole album is ‘screaming in the car with your best friends’ worthy, there are a few tracks that deserve a spotlight.
Moving through the first few tracks, you can quickly pick up the stories these talented women are trying to tell within their songs. While all the songs are worked on collectively within the group, Emma Bain the band’s singer, starts off strong with the track “Ivy.” This track tells her story of an unfair love, describing how nights were cold with and without them. Within the e get one of the most relatable lines, “I don’t miss those days when I felt so low, but I can’t seem to get you off my mind”. The words on this track pull the burning emotion of relatable experience out of the chest of it’s listeners, which in turn perfectly sets up the album and gives you just a taste of what’s to come with the remaining tracks.
The very next track, “Going South,” is raw yet intricate from start to finish. The ending, with slow progression and bellowing vocals, makes it hard not to get lost in the music as you navigate the final two minutes of the song. Making one sway in their seat and take in all that is being given, it’s truly thought-provoking and beautiful. Easily one of the best tracks on the album if you allow yourself to be vulnerable with slow tunes like this.
These next notable songs get you into the feeling of nostalgia. Just like “Ivy,” one might find oneself thinking of past loves that seemed to burn themselves into the back of our minds. Great songs that continue to play with this feeling are tracks eight and nine, “I Still Think of You” and “But Not In The Way You Want Me To.” Playing into how their names go perfectly together, these two songs flow seamlessly into each other and bring you along an emotional rollercoaster. By this point in the album, one is likely to be lying on the floor staring into space questioning life. “Not In The Way You Want Me To” hurts just enough to leave a lasting impression, mixed with it’s catchy guitar riff it’s enough to make it linger in your mind and your throat as it’s hard not to hum this song mindlessly.
Lastly, the album ends with a personal favorite, “Summer Rain.” This song is needed after everything Into The Ivy has put you through. Ending with this upbeat change of pace, you’re left with the feeling of resolution and satisfaction. This song gives the feeling of letting go of the ghosts and moving on to find yourself in the wreckage. No matter how much of a mess that wreckage might be, one thing is for sure: Into The Ivy is for the people that love too much and let go too little.