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Lindsay Ell – Heart Theory

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Lindsay Ell - Heart Theory

Lindsay Ell - Heart Theory
4.8

Rating

 4.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Twelve really amazing tracks
  • Great travel through the different stages of grief
  • Outstanding song "make you"

Lindsay Ell is definitely one of the finest Canadian artists in the country music scene. After releasing some of the track of her 2020 album Heart Theory, not only her fans knew that this record will very likely be worth listening. Of course, it was quite high on my list as well when Ell released the album on 14th August 2020.

Lindsay Ell – About The Artist

Lindsay Elizabeth Ell was born on 20th March 1989 in Calgary, Alberta. She is doing country music, but as she is a skilled and passionate guitar player, her music has often a touch of rock music as well. The instrument she started doing music with, however, is the piano. Two years later, at the age of eight, she started to play the guitar. She wrote songs soon thereafter – however, the tracks were initially rather blues than country. She started to release music at the age of nineteen – on New Year’s Eve 2008 and just two months later, she published her first two albums, Consider This and Alone. They haven’t been too successful, but some four years later, in 2013, Trippin’ On Us made it to #14 in the Canadian Country Charts.

She kept on releasing singles with All Alright in 2016 being the first song which made it to the Canadian Top 10. After Waiting on You placed fourth and Criminal even topped the Canadian charts in 2017, she released her third album (and her first one after more than eight years), The Project. The album got huge in the US. The following album, The Conitnuum Project, however, just had very little success and was only listed in the US Indie Charts. Her first US Country Airplay chart-header was her great duet with Brantley Gilbert, What Happens in a Small Town, which I also listed in my favorite songs of 2019. A solo release, I Don’t Love You, placed in the Canadian Top 10. Heart Theory is Lindsay Ell’s fifth album.

 

Lindsay Ell – Heart Theory – Track by Track

The album lasts 39 minutes. It is split into seven sections, which represent the seven stages of grief.

shock
1. Hits me

I’m happy til it hits me – the first song n the album has even a quite happy, summerly sound. It is definitely a song which catches you from the very beginning – promising!

2. how good

how good definitely sounds more angry, but emotional than the starting track. Lindsay Ell proofs her talent as a guitar player on the one hand, on the other hand, she partially pairs it with a close-to-fragile sounding voice – which is quickly turning into a frustrated and shocked style. Impressive.

3. I don’t lovE you

I don’t love you, baby
I don’t love you, no
I don’t love you anymore
But I still miss you, still miss you sometimes

After two powerful tracks, Lindsay Ell shares this amazing ballad with the listener. After these three tracks, it is hard to believe that this album could turn into something bad.

anger
4. wAnt me back

If I were you, I’d miss my kiss
I’d miss me keeping you up all night
If I were you, I know that losing me
Would make me lose my mind
You ain’t gonna find nobody like me
I’m the best you ever had
And I’m always gonna be, so
If I were you
If I were you
I’d want me back too

wAnt me back is the first track on the album, which has been released by Ell before the album. Fourth song on the album, fourth great track.

5. get oveR you

You say you think that we should try to be friends
But every time I try you think I’m leaning in
Just ’cause I loved what we had
Don’t mean I want it back
If you think I’d put myself through that again, well

I haven’t written too much about how Ell takes you on that track of grief. This break-up topic feels very suitable for the anger section of the album. The sound is angry as well: Ell can show her excellent guitar skills in here. Really good!

6. wrong girl

You’ve got the wrong girl – if there are any doubts about anger in these songs, Lindsay Ell kills any doubts in the last track of this section. Such a compact and great selection of songs so far, which really follow a certain story. You just have to love to listen to heart theory so far.

bargaining
7. body language of a breakup

body language of a breakup is definitely one of the most impressive tracks of the album. Another great example of lovely storytelling, especially as bargaining is likely not the easiest feeling to put into a song.

depression
8. good on you

In good on you, Ell lists a lot of things which look good on you, pointing towards an ex-lover. Frustration, depression? Defenitely, even the rhythmic sound could easily be a summer song as well.

testing
9. The oTHEr side

Entering testing, The oTHEr side is definitely spreading a touch of optimism again. You dare to dance to the music and to the story. Really love to step towards this oTHEr side with Lindsay.

10. gO to

Okay, as I know the two songs which follow after gO to, I can finally say that I will not assign attributes like weaker to any track on this album. Lindsay Ell just does an amazing job through this emotional rollercoaster in twelve tracks. The tenth one is great, definitely!

acceptance
11. make you

If you follow my blog, my judgement on make you will not surprise you at all – in my positing Let The Girls Play about Women Country Music, for example, I stated that this song which deals with Lindsay Ell being raped twice in her life, is one of the best songs of the year so far. Thank you for sharing this one with us, Lindsay.

12. ReadY to love

Quite interesting that Lindsay chose two songs of the acceptance stage to be published before the album.

Ready to love again
Ready to trust again
Ready to put my heart back out there
If your heart is out there
I’m ready to feel again
Cause I can feel it when
Baby, your lips are almost on mine
Wish you’d kiss me all night, I’m
Ready to love again, yeah, yeah
I’m ready to love again, yeah, yeah

Ain’t that a lovely finish of the album? I do love it!

 

Lindsay Ell – Heart Theory – Spotify

Here is your opportunity to listen to the album on Spotify:

 

Lindsay Ell – Heart Theory – My View

Lindsay Ell makes me want to cry at make you (despite the somehow optimistic message in it), she makes me want to dance when she is ready to think about The oTHEr side, she makes me listen to her songs, fascinated, mouth wide open. While make you is already a hot candidate for my Song of the Year 2020, heart theory could be quite on the top of my albums of the year as well. This is indeed a masterpiece – I feel like hugging her and say thanks for these amazing twelve tracks. Current travel bans are protecting her from that. Must-listen – and of course a Top Pick!

 

Flyctory.com about Lindsay Ell

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