In the same vernacular as his 2014 album release of Into The Fog, Cinders is Joshua Worden’s newest EP that imparts onto listeners special moments within the singer-songwriter’s life. The follow-up took 3 years in the making, simmering in the artist’s back-burner as life happens (getting married, buying a house, renovating the house, etc.). With a more simplified outlook on music as Worden grows as an artist, the singer has cultivated a meditative element to his sound.
The newest EP, Cinders, altogether captivates with an atmospheric feel to the hip-hop electronic beats that welds together many genres including R&B, chillwave, pop, trip-hop, and more.
Cinders opens up with “Bivens Arm,” a great R&B sounding track with hip-hop-influenced beats. The chorus contains echoing auto-tuney background vocal elements to the song. The ambient sounding synths create a big sweeping cadence with highly atmospheric and very chill and mellow vibes. A cascading fusion of scintillating electronic beats and futuristic synths go on to make this track an engrossing piece of work.
“The Wonder” is paved with unwavering synths and dynamic electronic beats and keys that give life to the atmospheric vibe.
Vibrant synths, hip-hop beats, and trip-hop elements fill “Tennessee.” An unsettling vibe courses through this track as well as a haunting air to the premise of this song. Describing the mountainous landscape of Tennessee, airiness and ethereal-ness trace this track as well as a guitar that highlights throughout the song.
The very last song to the EP, “Echoes,” follows through with an arresting great flow. Containing ambiguous lyrics that are purely up to your interpretation, the languid sound coming from the cascading beats and luxurious soundwaves pave the track with its super smooth and sauntering cadences. The elegant atmospheric vibe makes this an awe-inspiring track.
With an ear finely attuned to the different nuances of music, Worden is able to fuse together an organic sound with guitars, electronic layered beats, and synthesizers. Recalling the sounds of James Blake and Bon Iver, these are chill escapes that transcend beyond the cityscape and into a more natural setting of rippling streams and mountainous terrains.
Keen on mixing many different elements into his sound, the artist’s faceted and genre-bending altitudes has welded together an atmospheric release that peers into imageries of the natural world and syncs it into the artist’s emotive and powerful vocal delivery and meditative electronic music.
The imageries concocted from the EP is profound; it seamlessly narrates a storyline filled with awe and earnestness. The ambient bent to Cinders touches base with the more naturalistic sense of life, unearthing within listeners a primal-reality to the EP.
Worden moves between worlds easily with his music, catapulting audiences into the natural world with his scenic and atmospheric electronic music as well as syncing us with his world views with ambiguous lyrics and contemplative music. Enter Joshua Worden’s soundscape that is filled with the spectacular sounds of chillwave, hip hop, trip hop and R&B.