Girls Eat Sun: Hope Tala Shines On Latest EP
Hope Tala’s latest EP delivers exactly what its cover art promises: a wonderland of coffeehouse surrealism.
A finch dons a nightdress and clutches a teddy bear in its beak. Two cherries dangle like earrings, smiling lovingly at each other. Droplets of sun drip from Tala’s mouth to chin.
It shouldn’t make sense. But this otherworldly carnival finds grounding in the lyrical prowess of London’s darling songstress. Over the warm tones of her acoustic guitar, Tala weaves together a series of corporeal metaphors, equal parts poetic and relatable.
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Newcomer to the R&B world, Tala first made waves with debut EP Starry Aches in 2018. Sultry tracks like “Blue” garnered praise from major music outlets Clash and Complex. In 2019, Rolling Stone declared her follow-up track “Lovestained,” “the Song of the Summer Morning.” By the release of her sophomore EP, Sensitive Soul, it was clear the neo-soul singer had accomplished the near-impossible: turning heads in a genre plagued by monotony.
While Tala is no stranger to the limelight, Girls Eat Sun represents a breakthrough moment of new proportions. With a feature from platinum-certified Aminé and an outpouring of love from top media platforms, Tala’s latest release positions her at the precipice of mainstream stardom.
“The title is a paraphrase of ‘if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen’ – as the girl eating the sun, I’m daring and fearless.”
“At the core of Girl Eats Sun,” Tala writes, “ is an assertion of confidence and boldness. The title is a paraphrase of ‘if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen’ – as the girl eating the sun, I’m daring and fearless. I chose this title because I feel as if the songs and stories on this project are more vivid and inventive than anything I’ve released thus far, and I’ve pushed my sound in different, exciting directions.”
The 6-track set opens with “Mulholland,” a rule-breaking rumination on love at the intersection of LA nightlife. It’s a sleek prelude - soft, sunny, and infinitely clever in its hook capacity. Tala reels in listeners with her lyrical dissonance. Tender acoustics confuse far darker melodies. “I etch myself into the sky,” Tala croons over upbeat syncopations. “[Drugs] wouldn't leave me lost like you do.”
“Mulholland” fades seamlessly into the Spanish guitar riffs of “Cherries,” the EP’s standout single. A lyrical masterpiece, “Cherries” is a personal triumph for the recent Literature graduate, who’s poeticism bleeds lovingly into her music. The opening verse belongs in a literary magazine:
“The cherries in your mouth spill stars
Scarlet venom to keep in jam jars
We all build worlds with joined up scars
But your constellation has stained my guitar
And the french in your mouth breaks ribs
Makes heads go light and hands lose their grip
Pulling teeth behind a bottom lip
To look for cherry stones and rotting apple pips”
In an interview with Refinery29, Tala muses, “I think of 'Cherries' as being about the human body. When I was writing its lyrics — lines like 'The tears I cry' and 'pulling teeth' — I was thinking about how I could use the body and its functions to craft complex metaphors that talk about emotions and feelings.”
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Corporeal metaphors collide with Renaissance imagery in the single’s new music video. Tala poses in a brigandine and clutches her sword while avoiding a FaceTime call from feature artist Aminé. He offers a refreshing counterpoint to Tala’s airy vocals, rattling off lyrics as cocky and playful as the track’s plucky tempo.
“All My Girls Like to Fight” serves as the EP’s middle-point and, perhaps, thesis. Previously released in September, this ode to female empowerment immediately caught the streaming world’s attention. In an interview with Wonderland Magazine, Tala states,“ I wanted to create a visually rich tale steeped in drama and intrigue to match the suspenseful Spanish guitar chords we started with in the studio...I wanted to portray women as having strength and agency in their narrative.” “I lick their hands clean of bark and bite,” Tala sings. Fitting of a project dedicated to women devouring the sun itself.
Interlude “Drugstore” wanes into low-fi love ballad “Crazy.” In one of the EP’s most tender moments, Tala waxes poetic about an oncoming crush; “Plant rosebuds on my cheek, I'll blush like rosé wine. And if you water them enough, I promise we'll be fine.”
The EP culminates in a gentle redux of its opening track. “Easy to Love” is a Sunday morning gone wrong, the inevitable conclusion to Tala’s surrealist wonderland. Darkness looms beneath sunny acoustics. “I can see your heart beneath your ribcage,” Tala opens. “You should save it for me.” Minimalist in its production, “Easy to Love” showcases Tala’s breathy tones like no other track in the set. Viscerally sweet, the outro progresses like a fever dream, softly fading into the antiworld from which this project emerged.
Girls Eat Sun was released on all major streaming platforms on October 30th. New music is (hopefully) forthcoming.
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