Southampton’s Seán McGowan recently released the second track off his new EP “Curate Calm, Create Chaos”. Here’s what I thought…

After the success of two albums in as many years, Seán McGowan is back again, with a new EP and a whole new style. Seán started hinting at this with blacked out profile pictures a little while ago, and hints of singing clips, and on the 12^th September released the first song, “Silk”.

An emotional, hard hitting song, “Silk” delves into the new age of social media, and all that comes with it. Schizophrenic lifestyles and social media profiles are explored, and how we don’t always see the true meaning behind the post. The soft vocals and lightly strummed guitar are a contrast to Seán’s earlier work, but the mixture of soft lyrics and strong accent work well together. Furthermore, the track explores the lies behind the profile, and how we can be someone else when we’re behind that screen, but eventually we will all be caught in the web.

The second track is “Heartbreaker”. A real tear-jerker, Seán pre-warned us about the new track with an Instagram post

The song opens with a figure picking acoustic guitar – something relatively unheard of from Seán, who we are used to big, bold and brash openings, before an almost rap style introduction, looking at the emotional gamble of being in a relationship, that, deep down, is destined to fail. The song examines helplessly begging for attention, the realisation of the end and the turmoil that comes with it. Again, the combination of Seán’s gruff accent and the softly spoken words work amazing together, accompanied by the brilliant backing vocals.

So far, the first two songs have set this EP out to be an emotional banger. I cannot wait to hear the EP in full and I’m even more excited to see it live and have a catch up with Seán in Bristol in November.