Wallice 'Off the Rails' Is the Timeless Soundtrack to Your Aimless Years
Wallice makes the sort of music that scored my aimless teenage years - released then, it very well could have been the backing soundtrack to countless hours spent staring up at my ceiling either replaying moments from the day before or imagining picture-perfect scenarios with a dreamlike clarity. Even now, years later and in the midst of what ought to be a quarter-life crisis, Wallice's debut EP Off the Rails manages to bring me right back to those moments of teenage escapism.
Told through a series of six tracks that evoke everything from the sage yet grounded wisdom of Courtney Barnett to the heart-wrenchingly exquisite lyricism of Angel Olsen, Wallice's debut EP cements her as a talent wise beyond her years. It is a feat made all the more ironic given much of the subject manner of Off the Rails. Coming-of-age and the childlike notion that with age comes revelation is at the crux of the entire affair, with Wallice recounting everything from her daily minutiae to fantasies with an endearing honesty and candor.
It is in this frank and sincere approach that Off the Rails provides a platform for Wallice's gift for poetic songwriting to shine. Wallice's at-times self-defeating whirlwind delivery may seem unforgiving - giving the same credence to a Hydro Flask left in the back of a car as she does to wishing everything would change in a year's time - but it is the way in which every disclosure, no matter how small or monumental, is treated with the same care that provides Off the Rails with a deeply personal air. It imbues every confession or passing comment with an undeniable emotional weight.
Off the Rails may be Wallice's debut effort but it sounds like anything but. Dipping into garage-folk meditations and cascading over soaring indie pop melodies, the rising star delivers a succinct collection perfect to score any escape, imagined or otherwise.
Listen to Off the Rails below:
