Continuing a hot start to 2024, Amie Blu shows out on “pretty,” her second single of the year and one that affirms her rise to the top of the UK’s alternative R&B scene.
Stream: “pretty” – Amie Blu
Beautiful music is a beautiful thing.
Anyone can go on and on about the technical complexity of one song or the masterful production of another, but the bottom line is that true beauty – a song that forces your eyes shut and transports you to that liminal space between fantasy and reality, flooding you with dopamine spikes and bittersweet nostalgia – is hard to come by.
That is Amie Blu’s wheelhouse. There’s a [strange] comparison to be drawn between her music and the A24 film Everything Everywhere All at Once. A good amount of her catalog is capable of eliciting euphoria, melancholy, and catharsis in one go, being wildly entertaining the whole way through. The 21-year-old rising star’s second single of the year, “pretty,” is a prime example of this.
Released on March 28, “pretty” rides an upbeat snare and an array of acoustics in complete synergy, musing on the paranoia struck into a relationship by all parties involved – herself, her partner, and the girl there was “no need to worry” about.
She’s got a pretty face
Just like the stars
Yeah you can’t look away
The type of girl that’ll make you change
No I won’t blame you
I’d do the same
She’s got a pretty face
You cry on her shoulder
She don’t complain
The type of girl that’ll make you stay
No I won’t blame you
No I won’t blame you
I’d do the same
A ballad about self-discounting that somehow uplifts listeners takes a level of maturity that Amie Blu has exuded since her start.
The potency of her self-meditation, paired with intimate instrumentals and remarkably candid songwriting, is what makes her music so evocative – it was all over her last EP, crumbs in my bed, with songs like “9 lives” and “no spine,” and it only becomes richer.
I hate competing
I always lose
I get inside my head
Don’t make it through
I’m not athletic
I’ve got no clue
But what I can give you’s
nothing but the truth
Feel like I’m waiting
Just to wait out again
And then, of course, there’s her voice. Not many names come to mind when thinking of a voice as enchanting and resonant. Her timbers and falsettos stick like glue, and her inherent soulfulness is compounded by layering that can only be described as hypnotic.
Hailing from South East London, Amie Blu catapulted onto the scene just two years ago.
Having signed to 0207 Def Jam and performed all over the UK while receiving cosigns from the likes of Jessie Reyez and Bella Hadid, her presence has blossomed with all but two short EPs under her belt. It’s a true testament to a quality-driven career approach, and with a highly-anticipated new project set to release later in the year, the sky’s the limit for Blu’s fast-rising star.
This is one of those instances where unfamiliar readers would do better to take a listen instead of taking my word for how unreal a talent she is. You’d be doing yourself a favor.
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Stream: “pretty” – Amie Blu
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© Alastair McVeigh
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