“I think the main theme of my upcoming project is introducing myself as an artist. I think is going to have a variety of music in it – I think it portrays my influences very well in one compilation. I like to experiment a lot. I’m proud to show this project to people. It’ll be a huge accomplishment of mine.”
– CELESTIA (Excerpt from A Conversation with Celestia)
When speaking with CELESTIA a little more than a month ago in anticipation of her debut album, she told us this to inform us of the content of This is Revival. Interviewing her gave an in depth look at her background and inspirations, and helped understand the person behind the music. The 20 year old singer has been on Soundcloud for many years now, but only began posting music around two years now. During that time, she has already amassed over 100,000 plays on her range of singles. Even before her debut album, she had already been collaborating with some of the biggest producers in the scene; lending her dreamy, soft vocals to beats from the likes of killedmyself, despair, gin$eng, and more. As such, there was a lot of anticipation for This is Revival from fans across the internet, one of them being myself.
CELESTIA holds a special place in my Soundcloud follows, as she was one of the first female artists I ever got into on the website. After discovering her through one of my favorite producers, gin$eng, with the song “itwasntevenlikethat” she stayed relatively buried within my likes on the platform before I rediscovered her a couple months later and began exclusively playing her music for the following week. Following in the same vein as fellow female singers Lil Bo Weep and VELVETEARS, CELESTIA’s music drew me in by combining the familiar sound of trap drums and booming 808s with sad melodies and lyrics. The combination of the two felt both comfortable and familiar to me, while being different enough to warrant further listening. Her distinctive voice had a quality that was both soothing and depressing at the same time and this trend was matched with the content of her lyrics. Discussing both the happiness and sadness that comes with all relationships, she wove very personal and expressive stories that I heavily connected with.
This is Revival continues upon that trend, bringing more to the table and showcasing CELESTIA’s style quite well. The project, aiming to express the broad range of influences and styles of CELESTIA’s, reads like a checklist of Soundcloud’s finest. Bringing together some of the most popular producers on the platform under one cohesive banner. Names like M-Piece, 1800entity, gin$eng, cresylic, and YungJZAisDead scatter among the production credits, along with features from vocalists Lux, and Scotty Apex; each one putting their own unique production or singing style into action and crafting beats that blend with the vocals perfectly.
“I chose the name because I wanted something to define the theme of my project. The word, ‘revival’ was fitting because it portrays my intention of my work for this project. An improvement, or an instance of something being important again. Which in this case, was my music. I’ve been making music for a while, but I wanted it to showcase it in a way to introduce myself as a new artist.”
-CELESTIA
The entire album has an air of compositional obscurity to it, while each song is lyrically relatable and familiar. The album discusses the subjects of love, relationships, feelings of loneliness, and sadness. The way the music and audio are mixed gives a feeling of unfamiliar distance; like a dream you have just awoken from, one which was crystal clear and lucid but after a few moments seems far away and shrouded in a foggy haze. The music captures that feeling, and further discusses the subject of dreams in the killedmyself produced song “Bullet To My Heart” which contains a sample from the movie The Mysterious Stranger. In it, Lance Kerwin’s character #44 and Chris Makepeace’s character August Feldner discuss the nature of reality as being a dream in the final moments of the production. The small addition of this conversation into this song added another layer to the atmosphere and mood of the album, making the work that much more engaging to listen to.
The two tracks that caught me most off guard, however, were “Wandering Me” and “Nowhere To Be Found.” The songs, produced by Steezy Prime and inochi respectively, contain samples from Bones’ songs “SadlyThatsJustTheWayThingsAre” and “Cut.” Each came from earlier in Bones’ career when the depressive lyrics and tone that characterized him many years ago were helping him rise to prominence, with the assistance of the wealth of talent contained under the TeamSESH banner. SESH producers GREAF and hnrk crafted woeful guitar melodies that assisted Bones’ delivery of messages about depression, suicide, and long lost relationships. While “Wandering Me” uses GREAF’s “SadlyThatsJustTheWayThingsAre” guitar melody to convey a story of loss, “Nowhere To Be Found” is a cover of Bones’ and hnrk’s song “Cut.” CELESTIA’s moody voice blending in with the production to once again establish a hazy and melancholic atmosphere that carries the tale of depression and suicide Bones relayed almost 5 years ago.
Overall, This is Revival is another mark of achievement on CELESTIA’s nascent yet impressive career, and will undoubtedly appeal to newcomers to the scene and CELESTIA’s established fanbase. Take a listen to the project down below