Review: “Ordinary Life” by Emily Breeze

Say hello to Emily Breeze.

The Bristol based artist just released a single from her upcoming third album, Rapture. The album will be available on Sugar Shack Records in January 2023.

Emily says this about Rapture:

A collection of coming-of (middle) age stories which celebrate flamboyant failure, excess and acceptance.

For now, Emily has gifted the Universe with “Ordinary Life” and it is absolutely infectious.

Speaking of the inspiration for the song Emily says, 

It’s a quest that involves biblical first loves and tragic one night stands, epic all nighters and the quiet desperation that follows as your dreams disperse like the fronds of a dandelion clock in the cold morning air. You blink, two decades have passed and you become the thing you always despised, a three dimensional, functional adult with reasonable expectations… Or perhaps it’s the theme song to the end of a John Hughes movie set twenty years after Prom night, except it’s not prom night, it’s Butlins and Mike Leigh is directing but Simple Minds and Souxsie Sioux are still sparkling in the spotlight, and so are you.

From the get go, the music for “Ordinary Life” gives me U2 vibes. The bass is sticky and sweet while the drums softly harmonise with the bass and the guitar is Edge-esque, pulling everything together in a subtle, stunning, and toe tapping beat.

But it is Emily’s voice that makes “Ordinary Life” clutch.

If Siouxsie Sioux and Chrissie Hynde had a love child, Emily Breeze would be said love child.

Emily floats beautifully between spoken word and singing and both are equally hypnotising. She paints a vivid picture with the lyrics for “Ordinary Life” and I can see them play out in a black and white film.

In its simplicity “Ordinary Life” is quite complex and that’s what makes it beautiful.

Listen to “Ordinary Life” below.


Lyrics to “Ordinary Life

Back then rent was cheap in the wrong parts of town
You could walk into almost any place and get a cash in hand job 
I was a terrible waitress
And an even worse singer
But I didn’t care, I just knew
Something bigger, brighter, better was on its way 
Someone was gonna spot me walking down Stokes Croft and say 
Hey kid, I’m gonna make you a star
And whisk me away into my glittering future
Twenty years later, I’m still waiting
But do you know what?

There’s nothing wrong with an ordinary life

We had widescreen, high definition surround sound love affairs 
And low budget B movie one night stands
Somehow it was always the end of the summer
And we dragged ourselves through the streets at dawn
To our days jobs and dole office appointments
Fueled on weapons grade hope and uncut dreams
And the days went by, and the days went by
And the days went by like strobe lights

There’s nothing wrong with an ordinary life

One day you will find yourself at a friends 40th birthday party 
Wondering how the days turned into decades and if anyone still does drugs 
And you will dance, dance off the minutes and the moments
And magic and the misery and the miracles and monotony
As you unfurl into infinity among the solar systems and galaxies
A dopamine driven pinball machine studded with hair and nails and teeth 
Hard wired with desire and fear and dreams hosted by the ghost of a memory of a memory, of a memory, of a memory of a memory

There’s nothing wrong with an ordinary life 

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