Review: "+1" - B. Miles
- Azalea Withrow
- 38 minutes ago
- 2 min read
"+1" confronts holding on to a relationship out of the comfort of being desired rather than because of love. Settling instead for the dutiful relation of being a plus one, the singer requests, "for a few hours, please be mine." Preferring to keep her true realizations buried rather than accept the truth that "I am just a plus one that you call when you’re alone," the artist pleads with her placeholder, "Why won’t you let me try to be everything that you want and need," or, at least, "can you stay till the morning." B. Miles does a stellar job conveying the desperation of a yearning to be someone's everything. So much so, that one is willing to lose themselves in the process of seeking that validation expressed bluntly in her lyric, "If you want fake, I can fake it right."
An effect of inserting a VHS into a player sets the stage for B. Miles's single "+1." Miles's voice sings like honey spreading over a smooth blend of loose percussion, subtle saturation, and a fuzzy sonic atmosphere. The textures of sound lend themselves to the emotional and contemplative lyrics Miles wrote for the single. She creates a whimsical eeriness through the swirling sounds of lofi-adjacent modulations that appear heavily in the introduction and throughout the track. This track exists in a soft spot of Miles's discography, musically and lyrically exposed.
It's been ten years since New York-based artist B. Miles released her first EP, "Twenty Fifteen." In her own words, Miles says, "Most of what I’ve written over the last decade feels like smoke leading me back to the same flame." About her new album "Time Doesn't Heal. It Hides." she states, "The songs I’ve written since seem to fold into that EP, like they were always part of the same story...Together, these songs form an album that tells the story I’ve been circling for a decade.” The artist's sound has been described as “a bridge to pop music’s future” (Ones To Watch), "universally addictive" (Nylon), and "giving us the language when our emotions are hard to explain" (Refinery29). B. Miles is unafraid to dive headfirst into her past, taking listeners along to uncover hidden truths.
Written By Azalea Withrow
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