Eric Paslay‘s new EP ‘Heartbeat Higher’ arrives on Friday and is a stunning project. Madeline Christy reviews the project here ahead of the release.
From ‘Song About A Girl’ to new project ‘Heartbeat Higher,’ Abilene, Texas native Eric Paslay has always captured lightning in a bottle, nowhere more so than on his new EP set for release this Friday. Paslay has been cautious and poised in the delivery of his album releases- his last album ‘Live In Glasgow’, was a live recording collection of not only songs from his debut, self entitled album (2014), but also his own renditions of hits he handed to other artists such as ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart’ (Eli Young Band), ‘Angel Eyes’ (Love & Theft), and Jake Owen’s ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night.’ It’s been a six year drought in new Paslay releases and while his sophomore album’s release date is yet to be set in stone, Paslay presents his fans with a lyrical libation to hold listeners over until then.
The works begin with a zealous texture of twinkling guitar, thick bass and incandescent drum cymbals. Even as Paslay sings the first opening lines ‘You’re the kind of rush, the buzz is all about/ You’re the kind of sweet dream, the night can’t do without’, the project glimmers with the return of the ‘High Class’ performer. ‘Heartbeat Higher’ was released as a single in late spring on the 8th of May, and features Sarah Buxton (co-writer of epic Keith Urban ballad ‘Stupid Boy’). Buxton’s engaging, husky vocals – analogous to fellow heartland rockers Brandi Carlile, Lucinda Williams and Pat Benatar – add a factor of mettle to the mainstream sounding track. While the song was written by both Paslay and Buxton, alongside Zach Crowell (who is best known for his works in the dawning years of Sam Hunt’s career), what legendary producer F.Reid Shippen brings to the table is his ability to contribute a driving pulse to the EP. The entire entity of the EP is moulded around the sense of a journey, which Paslay spoke more of with Sounds Like Nashville – “I love a great story with a great melody that takes you somewhere and I think we can go on a heck of a road trip together,” says Paslay in an exclusive interview. “We had a blast recording it in the studio and I can’t stop playing it because I’m just a fan of music and I think we really caught some magic in the studio. Each song represents so much of the music I love.”
Paslay co-writes and co-produces three out of four tracks on the release, including the next song entitled ‘On This Side Of Heaven.’ The secular hymn is majestic as Paslay uses his voice to bridge glory and sadness, love and heartbreak. The track has a modern baseline of celestial love in a home town as Paslay cries ‘Baby this house, yeah this whole town/Ain’t the same without you in ’em/Without you here, I’m goin’ through hell/On this side of heaven’. Lyrically, the song is a dirge, however it is brought to life through its lively instrumentation and wide mix, which helps to create such a bittersweet image of loss.
The only track that Paslay didn’t have a hand in writing is a cover of Mike Posner’s 2015 hit ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’. It’s a song that Paslay kept in his set during C2C’s presents series back in September of last year, at Bush Hall. The stripped rendition of the track conveys a vulnerable side to not only a come down making you feel ten years older, but also of the cover artist, Paslay himself – “The version I knew of it was the complete dance version of it and it’s playing at every rave party with glow sticks, everyone’s just getting plastered to it and this guy’s crying out for help,” he says. “I just thought, ‘How ironic.’ It’s just a perfect picture of pop culture these days of a singer crying out for help and we’re all just getting plastered to it.”
The ink on Paslay’s songwriting is variegated. In ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ the palette of the track is various in shades of stone, whereas ‘Boat In A Bottle’ is cross-hatched in strings of electrifying bluegrass. The rhythm of the closing track is as keen as a streetcar line, it’s impulsive build to the bright chorus makes the chorus truly stand out from the sandwiching verses. As Pasley sings ‘May the well flood our hearts on with forever, we’re all in this together, it don’t get any better than this/ I wish, I could bottle up this feeling, living this summer, dreaming we could just stay here on a boat in a bottle on a blue water bay, hey!’ the mix is illuminating with layers of fiddles, guitar and campfire-like backing vocals which adds some warmth to an already bombastic ending to the EP.
Hopefully Paslay will join The Shires this autumn on their rescheduled tour. In the uncertain future of live performances, it would be great to be able to hear the tracks from this EP live!
See Eric live on tour in the UK this autumn with The Shires:
October 21 – Corn Exchange, Bedford, England
October 26 – Academy, Bristol, England
October 27 – Princess Theatre, Torquay, England
October 29 – Brighton Dome, Brighton, England
Stand out tracks:
Boat in a Bottle
Heartbeat Higher
