Carolyn is a brand-new musical project from the ever-creative mind of singer/songwriter Emma Halpin. Coming from the success of her solo work under Emma Halpin and the more recent work as a member of Manchester based Indie Pop band South By Zero, Emma has now launched a new solo musical project under her middle name Carolyn. Following her self-proclaimed ‘pilot’ single in ‘spaceship‘, Carolyn has now recently released her Christmas EP ‘This Time of Year’.
With ‘This Time of Year’, Carolyn brings three covers of popular Christmas songs in ‘let it snow let it snow let it snow’, ‘a marshmallow world’ and ‘(there’s no place like) home for the holidays’ along with two original songs in ‘this time of year’ and ‘the present’.
Each of these tracks bring a warm and characterful feel to the EP. Taking influences from the relaxing familiarity of the now famous ‘Lofi’ music, Carolyn manages to create a soundscape full of incredible charm and Christmas fuzziness. With her personal takes on already established Christmas hits Carolyn forms the core of her feel-good EP, while subtly sliding an absolute gem of a would-be-single under the radar with ‘the present’.
In my opinion this is where the EP really shines, ‘the present’ is an absolutely joyous ear worm that stands on its own as a wonderful song without needing to rely on the sometimes-gimmicky feeling of the festive period. With ‘the present’ I think Carolyn truly announces her arrival after her ‘pilot’ single and sets herself up as an incredibly exciting artist to pay attention to. I’d listen to ‘the present’ in the peak of Summer – it’s that good.
Overall, this EP is a great showcase of Carolyn’s talent as an artist, showing off her musical prowess and songwriting skills as she injects every part of this new project with the typical Emma Halpin levels of enthusiasm. In an industry that is always justifiably ready to point out the difficulties of using social media, Carolyn takes an authentically upbeat approach to the online side of this project that comes across as refreshingly fun.
You can stream ‘This Time of Year‘ here, or alternatively follow Carolyn on any of her social media platforms here.
Words : Benjamin Hacking
