Review: Tell ‘Ya Story

     Layton Greene is a newcomer to the R&B scene following her explosion in popularity after releasing a video of her singing Kodak Black’s song “Roll In Peace” in 2017. After releasing five singles the singer just released a seven-track EP on September 29th. Each song tells a gripping story in its lyrics but doesn’t seem to be backed up by the same passion in the backing instruments.

     Every song starts out with somewhat vaporwave, or at least something similar to it and it is extremely appreciated getting a more niche genre to be appreciated by the masses, even if it’s just a few seconds at the start of a song. The mixing is very well done; there’s not really any part of the EP where I thought any instruments were too loud or soft, but really supported the tone of the song and matched the dynamics of her voice.

     The first couple of times I listened through this EP, I wasn’t super impressed with it. But as I threw it around in my head more and more, I’ve settled on it being just okay. Greene is extremely talented, but it’s such a bummer that her lyrics are so powerful and tell a moving story about her life while everything else doesn’t match her lyrics and vocal style in a performance aspect; while mixed well, the instruments seem extremely lifeless and droning, the phrasing is the same from song to song, and most of the themes don’t carry through each song. Each track sounds very similar to the last, however, that’s easy to overlook when the lyrics’ vocal style is as strong as it is. 

     Layton Greene is extremely talented and it’s very inspiring that a 20-year-old is able to sing as strongly as she does, and get her start in the music industry early. An EP that has such few complaints from me, especially a first EP, makes me excited to see where Greene goes later in life. Even though I may not listen to her music casually, and it’s definitely not my type of music, I can still appreciate the rising talent in Layton Greene.