Corey Alec premieres his electronically minimalistic debut EP, Painted Paradise
Review by Austin Sher
Released today on July 23, 2020, Corey Alec has officially debuted his long awaited new EP, titled Painted Paradise. Read along with us as we take you through an in-depth review of the record, as well as a bit of background on the artist himself.
Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Corey’s love and passion for music began around the age of 5 years old when he took up playing the piano. After he paired his music making with writing music at the age of 13, that’s when things began to get serious. Clearly though, music is in his blood, because coincidentally his great aunt is the legendary Loretta Lynn. Loretta is widely known for telling her truth, and by singing about her experiences with a perspective and voice unlike any other Southern storyteller. We could immediately tell that this was a family affair, because we noticed all those same differences throughout our listens of Painted Paradise.
Fast forwarding to the present of 2020, Corey has transformed his career into something much more serious. When he’s not making music, he’s creating all sorts of content via YouTube, TikTok, and more. He just got his certification in music production from Berklee and is now writing, mixing, and producing his own music.
While we could obviously provide the insight in our own words about the EP, we feel that it would be much clearer and concise coming from the artist himself. According to Corey, “Painting is a universal language that transcends time and place. They say painting is a great way of expressing how you feel. Corey uses the analogy of painting a picture in this sense in “Paint Me a Picture”, the first song on the EP, discovering the patterns, lies, and secrets his lover is painting between the lines. The solution comes in the second song “Stereotypical Ghost” where Corey realizes he must ghost this person to protect his mental health. Pushback occurs in the third song “Hey Stalker” where the person he ghosted annoyingly tries to stalk him. The fourth and final song on the EP “Lonely Paradise” is where it concludes with moving past all of it. Despite how society makes us feel like you can’t have a happy ending being single, “Lonely Paradise” proves otherwise. Thus the ‘lonely’ in the title to mock society. Sometimes the only person that can save you is yourself and that’s the message this is sending. Not a knight in shining armor. Not a prince. YOU. You have the power to change your future. You have to love yourself before you can love anyone else.”
How extremely well said! As you listen to the music and really dig into the lyricism behind the original beats, it paints such a clear picture on the difficulties and problems every person is going through and just how unique we all are as humans.
Diving into the music, Painted Paradise takes a very clear minimalist approach within its 4 total tracks. In our opinion, not every record needs to reinvent the wheel when it comes to instrumentation. There’s plenty of risks taken on the EP, but what really stood out to us were how well the vocals fit into the overall vibe and atmosphere of the record. We’d consider this to be a lo-fi record with dark undertones. While we’ve spoken about the hard hitting lyrics and themes, it really comes to light if you listen from start to finish as if it’s a full life story being told.
While this is the first official release coming from Corey Alec, we truly hope it’s not the last. The obvious work and dedication that goes into creating something like this is taxing, and we can so easily tell the passion conveyed as well. If this is your first glimpse into the world of Corey Alec, we sincerely hope you stick around to see what else his blossoming career uncovers. With that being said, get listening!
For everything Corey Alec, to listen to Painted Paradise, and to keep up with his latest releases and information, please check out the following links below.
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