Cohesiveness is a challenge. In cooking one flavor can overwhelm a dish and in music, too many ideas can spoil the magic.
But sometimes unexpected combinations are what make it work, such as peanut butter and bacon.
And in “So In My Head” there stands an EP where a wild menagerie of ideas comes together to make something dynamic and vibrant.
Across five unique tracks, it explores the core theme of the jumble of the mind and does so by featuring nine highly talented artists.
“So In My Head” is the brainchild of Heather Choate Davis, working under the name “Sophia Streams”. After finding faith at the age of 33, she has experienced what she calls “seasons”. Different parts of her life, each dedicated to something new, be it parenting, writing, helping others or music.
As Sophia Streams, she has brought together a “beautiful, gracious, multi-generational family” of artists and in doing so, painted an EP that could feel like a compilation of multi-genre one-offs but instead, comes together to paint a symbiotic tale.
It all begins with the dance-centric bop, “Chasing The Second Hand”
Chasing the second hand to tomorrowland
Where’d I leave that thought? Never mind, I got it
Remember season five, episode three of The Simpsons? Where Homer sees a squirrel and runs after it? Probably not. But the chances are that we’ve all had those “Oh squirrel!” moments, where we chase some random ideas.
In her lyrics, she juxtaposes the clear and obvious imagery of the clock with the chaos of an interior monologue. It’s poetically distracted songwriting.
With Colby Key’s Stevie Knicks-esque vocals, and that happy-go-lucky dance beat, the EP opener sets the tone for a Robyn-style dance-centric collection.
The lighters might have been replaced by cell phones but our appetite for an anthem remains unchanged. As “Dioramas in the Rain” joins the variety show, we go from a bouncy tune to a feelsy modern folk-pop anthem, perfect for fans of Swift, Rodrigo or Sheeran.
Driven by the crystal clear vocals of Hannah Rost, and a tactile acoustic guitar, this song morphs like a diorama would when wet.
The rug was pulled, now my whole life has changed
A moment of sudden and irreversible transformation.
I’m no longer a girl
Whether that’s a positive change is for us to decide. But we all change, we all grow and in her Sophia Streams project, Heather Choate Davis taps into that inevitable metamorphosis.
The next left turn is perhaps the least acute but it brings about the song with my favorite imagery.
As someone with a lot of energy, a lot of ideas and a susceptible to a lot of distractions, I’ve always said my head is like a shed; full of rubbish. In “Mind Like An Airbnb” we get a much more nuanced exploration of the jumble within our skull, with more of a focus on the negativity that often resides there.
Tell me who were you connecting to–cuz it sure wasn’t me
Time to get this heart of mine out of hospitality
The bad feeling is confronted at the song’s end. Nick Taylor joins the party for vocal duties and helps usher in a realization of a needed change.
What also makes this song interesting is the very intentional production choices. It’s a bar tune by design and that same bar is audible in the background seamlessly forming part of the song.
The penultimate genre hop comes in the shape of “Helter Skelter Man”, an “R&B prophecy” about the price of fame.
Gonna tune your soul…to dance for fame
Blake Flattley, singing with the same grit you’d expect of the late, great Mark Lanegan, delivers lines that poke holes in the dream of stardom.
His production also helps the song build to a huge crescendo, which leads perfectly into the EP’s introspective and mellow climax.
Where “So In My Head” explores chaos, its final song, “River of Love” looks to flip the agenda.
I’m so tired of being wrong
A strong opening and a mission statement for a piano lounge ballad. The song paints a picture of stale smoke and a silent transfixed crowd. Madison Youch’s vocals are potentially the strongest on the EP and create a firm stamp of positivity in a genre that often gives off morose and blues-infested vibes.
But a strong opening statement needs a firm finish and that’s what we get.
Down by the River of Love
Where I don’t need….to do better
In this full stop, we get a moment of self-kindness and a realisation that doing the best one can is all one can do. We also get a place of peace, and if we can all find that, be it through faith, family or friends, we might just be able to quieten the mind a little bit.
It seems though, that in “So In My Head”, Heather Choate Davis, as Sophia Streams, has found that trifecta of F’s.
By collaborating with friends, who have become a surrogate family, linked by faith and a love for music, she has forged an EP that makes sense of the chaos of the mind by leaning into an almost hectic smorgasbord of influences.
She’s found ingredients from different pages of the recipe book and made them fit and if her next “season” is as a chef, I’m all for it.
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