Rella, an artist hailing from New Zealand, creates music that can be characterized as a blend of melody and emotion. His style prominently features rap elements alongside bedroom pop-style vocals, set against a backdrop of melancholic guitars and powerful drum patterns. Impressively, he has rapidly garnered a substantial following on Spotify, amassing over 200,000 monthly listeners. On his latest project, “Eternal”, we get to take a peek at what he has to offer as a musician. Keep reading for my thoughts!
The opener, “Belong”, takes a slow, steady approach that we’re ushered into by a mild, delicate guitar pattern, until the beat drops– with a slower, more deliberate tempo with delicate low-end, letting Rella take the centre-stage. As he introduces us to his gentle melodies and his emphasis on harmonies and adlibs, he also dishes out straight-spoken– yet, heartfelt– verses, all tied together in a bow by the chorus. The song as a whole is very well written and produced, setting the stage for the second song, “Broken”.
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“Broken” takes a little bit of a faster, trap-influenced sound with much more going on in the low-end, paired with melodic-heavy songwriting that immediately has a tinge of Juice WRLD in there somewhere, and presented in Rella’s own take, which makes for a really interesting blend of elements, with melodic motifs that slowly evolve through the song’s runtime. The power in this song is a marked step up from the intro, which is a welcome introduction of variety.
At this point, I will take a step back and comment on the percussion that we’ve been introduced to, which I would describe as powerful, groovy, and engaging. This only continues on the third song– with a slight twist:
“Rockstar”, the single in mention, takes a bit of a tangent from the hip-hop-centred sound with the 808s, in favour of a good ole acoustic drum kit layered on top of the drum machine, as slightly melancholic melodies wrap around us, and the powerful mix keeps driving the point home for every second of the runtime.
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As we start to approach the middle of the album with “Baby What!”, we’re gently returned to the melodic hip-hop sound, with wafty bridges and pre-choruses forming a rather pleasant energy and dynamics gradient that I quite appreciated. Only solid good vibes so far! 🙂
Some special mentions from the album include “SOS” with a guest artist “Mitch”, which has a very distinct GASHI on “Roses” type of sound– slightly melancholic (as has been the theme across the album so far), with smart use of adlibs and creative mixing decisions that permeate the whole song, that really elevate this album to the next echelon of polish and professionalism. We also have “Loveblind”, which follows a much more sparse sound, instead choosing to focus its energy on the front-and-centre low-end of the song, with great groove and sing-ability.
As we draw “Eternal” to a close with “Somebody”, Rella takes the time to resolve all the elements and the motifs we’ve been introduced to over the course of the last 13 songs, with a very distinct late 90s-00s pop type beat coupled with modern pop and rap production techniques– and this results in “Somebody” being one of the best songs on the album unequivocally.
In conclusion, Rella’s musical journey in his latest project, “Eternal,” offers a captivating blend of melody and emotion. His distinctive style, combining rap elements and bedroom pop vocals against a backdrop of poignant guitars and robust drum patterns, showcases his artistic prowess and willingness to experiment. “Eternal” gets a two-thumbs-up recommendation from me! Check out the album here:
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