Tracee Perrin Releases New EP

Sporting the stylish demeanor that she does, one would be half-inclined to assume that indie pop singer/songwriter Tracee Perrin is a pure neo-soul artist in the truest tradition of the movement, but quite the contrary is true.

As anyone who gives her new EP The Clearing a spin will find out in its five sterling songs, Perrin is anything but a predictable daughter of genre politics. The Clearing is a bold, intrepidly crafted offering that transcends its aesthetical parameters right out of the gate and doesn’t tether itself to any of the modern movements currently shaping the sound of mainstream music. Perrin goes all in with us here and leaves a solidly memorable impression any way you look at it.

The titular track in The Clearing is perhaps its most intense. Mixed with a raw tonality that squares off with Perrin’s melodic vocal, this song twists and writhes with contempt for the standard pop formula. Punctuated with memorable percussive parts that seem to crash into each other before we ever touch on the chorus, the grooves that make up the framework of the composition waste no time pummeling us with colorful beats. Ironically, as rife with conceptualism as this track and the similarly bold “Only Up From Here” are, the instrumentation couldn’t be much more cutting and vivid in the final product. Just when it feels like the walls are going to collapse around us in this song, the melody seems to repeatedly find a way to ensure our survival on the whim of a fleeting harmony.

“Wreck My Ship” is a bit more saturated in physicality than the firm “Champion” is, but the contrast between the four makes for very intriguing listening when taking in The Clearing as a complete piece. “Poison in the Water” has this understated urgency about it that is seductive and somewhat standoffish initially, slowly becoming the anthemic slice of pop/rock that it inevitably grows into. “Only Up From Here” is decidedly more patient, but features a groove that flirts with recklessness occasionally, making the pristine quality of its vocal track all the more magnified.

That’s smart producing, but moreover, it’s provocative stylization from an artist who proves here that she can roll with the best of them – on either side of the soundboard.

Devoid of commercial filler and studded with sinfully addictive grooves that start strong and finish just as well, Tracee Perrin’s new EP hits the spot for pop and rock fans the same. There are a lot of layers to Perrin’s sonic profile that this record starts to dig into, and although there’s plenty of room left for her to expand this sound in future releases, there’s no question that we get a pretty good idea of who she is and what she’s all about in this extended play, as short and simple as it may be. With the momentum behind her career not waning in the least coming into 2024, I have a good feeling that this is just the start of something very exciting from this highly skilled performer. To me, this will be quite the standard to exceed in the future.

Mindy McCall