Greetings dearest gentle reader and music fans worldwide. Let’s give a warm welcome to US artist E.Z.O. He released a six-song EP called “Phased” on the 18th of May. Let’s get into the details of the EP.

The first song on the album is “PRAISE”. The song has this jazz-like sound in the very beginning. This a worker bee song, which highlights the aspirations of a free-spirited artist, and which he described as a “9 to 5 type struggle rap”. The rap verses were very witty and easy to sing along to and you will be incredibly entertained. This beautiful song opens the album

Next is a song called “Suburban Urban (freestyles after work)” This track opens with some incredible guitar strum that captures your heart and your attention instantly. The song talks about how Suburban areas often exemplify what life was like once work is done and you may party with your friends and freely (”that’s the anthem hoe”)express your absurdities and favorite things. The callback by the backing vocals is exciting and gets you so hyped you will start calling back too. Kendrick Lamar’s Backseat Freestyle serves as a sort of inspiration for this song and boy has he made K.dot proud with his witty and punchline after punchline

The song that follows is Mi Amor”, a song featuring artist Kaya Kulu. The song opens with some dreamy guitar sound and the producer’s tagline before the rap begins is a West Coast-inspired R&B song that expresses how much a male persona in the song wants the girl of his dreams and how she is unmatched by anybody else. (”mi Amor you make me wanna… bad with it”). Kaya sings a gorgeous stanza playing the role of the recipient of attention from the male persona. She sings so powerfully, accepting the compliments in such a sultry way, and thanks the male character for appreciating the fact that she glows. The song was awesome and the chemistry between these two artists was unmatched, selling the song’s fantasy even more

As the “male equivalent” of “Mi Amor,” “HDYL” highlights the love shared by both parties in the relationship while also highlighting the man’s level of resolution and the objectives of the relationship. (” How deep is your love”)The song opens with bright, glacial, and stunning piano sounds and the vocal performance is deep and very enjoyable and does a good job of showing that men can be as sensitive as women and even more sensitive and I applaud the artist for his vulnerability

The song “POP KEYS” is the next song on the EP which features the artist RACH. Very operatic piano sounds. The song was inspired by a song in the Broadway and soon-to-be movie adaptation of the Wizard of Oz story “Wicked” called “Popular” and just like in the Broadway show and this song, it had a meta-purpose of posing the question of what it takes to become popular(”spotlight on me, give me the change, what does it take to be popular”) through violins, rapping, singing, energy, and poetic proportion in order to advance in the music industry. I must say I’ve heard adoptions of the song “Popular” over the years but I have not heard it performed in such a unique and avant-garde way. Hats off to E.Z.O. for giving us a new lens and side of this beloved song. If you haven’t heard this song before, look out for it in the upcoming Wicked movie, soon to be in theatres everywhere

The EP closes with “Case closed”. The song starts with delicate piano sounds. At its core, the song is a poetic summary of the day’s events that includes reflections on life, the status of the world, and a summary of dissatisfied sentiments and hope for the next generation to succeed and surpass the previous one. The song reminds me of J. Cole’s “Apparently”, yet the horned instrument so sounds makes it sound like a jazz song. This song brings the EP to an end

The themes in this EP do well to remind listeners that eventually, we will return to the point where we may all wake up to a new day and move on to the next phase of our lives after having in-depth conversations and reflecting. It also discussed themes that center around love, fun, the difficulties of growing pains, and wishfulness for popularity. E.Z.O. Is very talented and he’s on his way to stardom

Stream the EP “Phased” on Spotify

Follow E.Z.O on his socials; Instagram, Bandcamp