Joshua Bassett Brings On The Beautiful and Timeless With Self-Titled EP
By Kenneth Tse
Photo Credit: Sarah Barlow + Stephen Schofield
Joshua Bassett has been on my radar ever since I saw his name being dragged through the gutter. That’s right – it was literally Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License” that initially brought me to the artist and his music. I immediately had great expectations for him; The High School Musical Trilogy happens to be a favorite of mine, so musical brilliance better be a given if you’re taking that bridge on “Breaking Free.”
With that said, I’m pleased to share that I was far from disappointed and in fact blown away by this six-track EP. It exudes the perfect blend of love, heartbreak, growth, and teenage nostalgia.
“Lie Lie Lie” is the most popular of his previously released music to make the project. The viral hit is widely seen as the response to “Driver’s License,” which has undoubtedly helped it gain over 13 million streams on Spotify alone. The song’s catchy hook and clean vocals left an instant impression on me. And a quick side note, while we’re on the subject: I don’t know exactly what’s been going here between these two, but I do know that the last season of Girl Meets World was iffy, to say the least. Nonetheless, the track and music video are both incredibly well written and put together.
The complexity in his musical style is shocking given his young age. “Anyone Else” and “Only a Matter of Time” are profound in that sense. The first is what I would call the “singer/songwriter’s special” – an acoustic campfire, Ed Sheeran type-bit that demonstrates the artist’s fantastic lyrical chops. The latter is great, too, and has a chorus that’s not only innovative but provocative: “But it's only a matter of time, An eye for an eye, you'll go blind.”
The three tracks are accompanied by three new ones on the EP – “Sorry,” “Telling Myself,” and “Heaven” make for incredibly strong editions. “Telling Myself” is upbeat, rhythmic, and manages to blend well with the delicacy of Bassett’s vocals. “Sorry” is a catchy number that really goes ahead with the spiteful ex-boyfriend vibe. Again, it’s definitely not a bad thing but certainly leaves the public with more questions than answers.
“Heaven is You” is a lovely conclusion to the project, and I think that many will agree – listeners are treated to a dreamscape of pop-music simplicity and timelessness. If I’ve learned one thing from all of this, it’s that Bassett’s name has largely been in the press for all the wrong reasons. 8.4/10