Release Date: March 20, 2023
Genre: Pop
Label: Independent Rising pop singer Chloé Caroline was born and raised in Manhattan Beach, California, and has dual Canadian citizenship with roots in Kingston, Ontario. Chloé's ultimate goal with her music is for nobody to ever feel alone. After experiencing a life-threatening illness at the age of eleven that left her isolated and feeling alone, she taught herself how to play guitar from YouTube videos and began using songwriting as her outlet. Chloé is back with her brand new two-part EP, The Awakening Vol 1, the follow-up to her albums, Everywhere I Go (2020) and Love, of Course (2018). Released independently, her brand new EP bundles six tracks that all stand out from each other and are all thematically connected. The new effort was produced by Brian West (Nelly Furtado, Maroon 5, Awolnation) and Jamie Kenney (Fletcher, Colbie Caillat) and mastered by Gabe Gallucci (Shawn Mendes, Johnny Orlando).
While still a student at Belmont University, Chloé became the first independent artist with her music and music videos actively on Radio Disney, Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon Music. Shortly after graduating from university in 2018, with absolutely no prior acting experience, she auditioned and landed a co-starring role alongside Kelly Rutherford and Cameron Mathison in the Hallmark Channel movie Love, of Course. Chloé was also heard writing and performing the entire soundtrack for the film. In addition, she has had multiple film and TV placements with her original songs ranging from the end credits of the Lionsgate motion picture The Great Gilly Hopkins to the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show.
The six tracks that form The Awakening Vol 1 EP are beautiful and raw. Sonically, they offer up a modern pop aurora with little inklings of the past. The project opens with the utterly vibrant "TWINFLAMES." The track touches upon finding your twin flame, or soul mate, if you will, but with a higher level of intensity. Sonically, "TWINFLAMES" sounds like any other casual bubbly pop track, but with the track's layered production and Chloé's utterly unique, sultry voice, the song soars and takes you elsewhere. The single "Saving Space" is a "what if" song that was inspired by an experience she had after meeting someone who set the spark for a relationship but was never able to get together because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the number's spacey and atmospheric drive, juxtaposed with Chloé's emotive vocals, the track surpasses the norm. You can feel the raw emotion she has also felt about what could have been with this relationship.
Chloé's EP takes sudden turns through its nearly twenty-three-minute runtime, and the track "GEMINI" is an excellent mix of funky, rock, and electronic elements. The song's wobbly bass line, backed by her exuberant effected vocals, along with the synths, keyboards, and the likes in the instrumental, create a whirlwind of music for over three minutes. The following track, "afraid of the dark," shares a part metaphorical, part literal story of self-discovery, love, heartbreak, healing, and reward. It details the spiritual bond between her and her partner and that you should be open to fear unknown, and uncertainty. Sonically, it's a beautiful and mellow track, stripped down to mostly just keys, soft guitar, and her unrestrained vocals. As the song builds, it does become a full band arrangement, but it doesn't exceed the emotion Chloé bleeds onto the track.
The EP's closing track, "Memories," showcases a powerful and unmatched songwriting style that isn't present on the previous five tracks, and by no means is that a bad thing. It furthers the stance that each of these six tracks stand out among one another. In another stripped-down number, Chloé paints a picture in words of what she feels it would be like to go back and meet her former self. When she was in the sixth grade, Chloé almost died from a debilitating illness that left her isolated for the majority of that school year. She later transferred to a new school and unwarrantedly experienced relentless bullying. During this time, her former teacher began a free-writing exercise, that later lead her to channel all her inner thoughts and feelings into letters. Sixteen years later, just as Chloé was feeling discouraged with her career path, she received a call from her mother that she had found those said letters. The Awakening Vol 1 is out now and can be streamed on major streaming platforms.
