Album: elated!
Artist: Bea Miller
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Genre: Pop
Length: 0:22:12
Label: Hollywood Records
Producer: Mike Sabath/Pasqué/"Downtown" Trevor Brown/Zaire Koalo/Chris Lyon/Michael Uzowuru/Teo Halm/Jeff Kleinman
A fresh, but predictable snap, crackle, and pop album...
Bea Miller with her fifth full length EP, elated!, while three others were also released in 2020. After a decently successful stint on the X-Factor, Miller eventually signed with Hollywood Records and released her debut EP Young Blood in 2014 when she was only 15.
The opening track on the album "hallelujah" features Miller's typical pop vocal style, while still portraying a unique song style than other pop artists. The grittiness behind her vocal chords in various parts of the song contrasted with the angelic-like singing perfectly brings her to another level of pop artistry. The choral voices on the "Hallelujah" echoes during the chorus are a nice touch and the various verse-to-verse production changes on the instruments make this song an exciting and comfortable pop sound, but nothing too different than other pop superstars.
The second track, "FEEL SOMETHING DIFFERENT" adopts a more dance feel than the other tracks, especially when combined with Aminé. The contrasting vocal tones between Miller's sad girl pop style to the upbeat rapping of Aminé is a beautiful pairing that makes an otherwise bland song enjoyable. The predictability with the beat is exciting in the beginning but quickly loses its value as it almost feels like they created this last minute to push a song out on the album.
elated! is an unapologetically pop record. While this isn't a bad thing, the innovative qualities never materialize since Miller doesn't show anything exciting throughout the album. Yes, the songs do sound different from one another and could be argued that there aren't other tracks in the world that sound like this, but overall it's just a typical Top 40 pop album.
This typical pop sound is what makes Bea Miller, Bea Miller though. And that, she completes to perfection. Her voice sounds almost too close to Billie Eilish but is different enough to tell she isn't. The arrangement of the songs isn't anything too spectacular either but the sense of security and comfortability is what makes Miller shine. "making bad decisions" shows all of these qualities from the beginning. The interesting metallic warbling sound in the background is a nice touch but overall the sound isn't anything to write home about, but that isn't a bad thing, it just isn't very unique.
The various songs that capture Miller's grittiness, especially "i never wanna die" is something completely different from her other sounds, which is a warranted addition to the otherwise repetitive album. Although she does show that she has a unique style of singing every so often, it only shows up occasionally, and when it does decide to peak into the song, the instrumentation and sound aren't special enough to sound different than anything else.
While it may seem that I hated elated!, I actually really enjoyed it. It may have been a very typical pop record but overall that is what makes it fun. The predictability with slight features, as shown in "wisdom teeth" that distinguish it from other artists is what makes it exciting, not the instrumentation, innovation or vocal quality. I would recommend this album if you enjoy female pop albums as this is very much the definition of that. I look forward to seeing how Miller matures and expands her sound over the next few years since she is still very young...
Favorite Songs: "wisdom teeth", "FEEL SOMETHING DIFFERENT", "i never wanna die"
Least Favorite Songs: "making bad decisions"
Production Quality:
Mix = 8.5/10
Innovation = 3.5/10
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 6/10
Lyricism = 8.5/10
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 6.5/10
Instrumental Timbre = 7/10
Group Chemistry = 6.5/10
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 7.5/10
Overall Rating: 7/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!