Seventeen year old singer-songwriter Lucy Gray from Otautahi, New Zealand has landed on the NZ Hot New Music Charts, and it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world hears. Gray’s whole life waiting EP is versatile and compelling. Produced by Andy & Vic Knopp of alt-pop duo, The Response, whole life waiting weaves threads from the last 25 years of popular music into something right and timely for today. Gray’s deep contralto range and vocal timbre reminiscent of artists like Colbie Callait married with stylistic markers of indie pop singers like Phoebe Bridgers sits soothingly within the kind of expansive indie pop rock textures made popular by bands like Coldplay. The result is music that you can listen to intently through headphones at 3am or to soundtrack your day. Gray’s vivid, imagery rich lyrics deliver just the hint of a story and worlds of emotion.

The EP starts with thin textures spread across the wide range of a piano, creating space for Gray’s vocals and a lone melodic synth bass, promising epic builds to thickly textured climactic moments punctuated by sudden drops to intimate spaces. The lyrics carry a similar promise, drawing figurative ties from the mind’s eye with “Dandelion floating through the wind…leaving home behind” to the mind’s heart with “Time won’t replace you, But I might, because I can’t stand the feeling.”

not fair is where Gray’s lovely contralto really starts to shine, complimented by vocal forward verses and a singable Taylor Swift style chorus that fittingly describes a toxic relationship:

But tell me baby when you’re right

Cause I don’t recall a single time

But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt

But tell me baby when you’re wrong

Cause I think I might know this song

Is this what you think power sounds like?

we were the scene contains some of that extra special something that only really great artists are capable of. It’s in the tangible intention behind the vocal delivery, the marriage of influences so complete that all you really hear is Lucy. The result is a deeply impactful capture of nostalgia, reflection, change, grief.

pretty features haunting and breathy vocal embellishments that compel repeated listens and attempted sing-a-longs, plus the stunning line “I’m way too much of what you want and not enough of what you need”. Gray is excellent for lyrics gems like these.

From lyrical composition to vocal affect, arrangement, and instrumentation, coffee breath is a banger that sounds like the Arctic Monkeys feat Lucy Gray. “From where I’m looking from you’re standing in my way / But you need me like a drug, just sign the NDA.”

Lucy and team hone the aforementioned something special to the highest standard in concluding track, paranoia of the mind. The single, which deservingly hit the NZ Hot New Music Charts earlier this year, is compelling in every way. It holds space for competing emotions beautifully and authentically, uplifting the listener and delivering a healthy hit of dopamine.

• 1
  Outside In
• 2
  Horror Story
• 3
  Fraser Ross
• 4
  Head Like A Hole
• 5
  Fur Patrol
• 6
  Michelle Rounds
• 7
  L.A.B.
• 8
  The Boondocks
• 9
  Us As Robots
• 10
  Late to Chelsea

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  Miss Leading @ Great Sounds Great, Rogue & Vagabond, Wellington - 31/08/2024
• 
  Castlecliff Lights @ Great Sounds Great, Hotel Bristol, Wellington - 31/08/2024

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  TASTE
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• 3
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• 4
  ESPRESSO
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• 5
  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
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• 6
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• 7
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• 8
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• 9
  TOO SWEET
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  BIG DAWGS
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