Review: "AM I HERE?" - SOLIE

SOLIE's single "AM I HERE?" is fresh off the singer's debut EP JUNE XX released June 20, 2025. The catchy alt-pop song captures what it means to find hope in the struggle, even when it's nonlinear and messy. SOLIE summarizes that, "this song was born in a place where everything felt like too much and not enough all at the same time." SOLIE transports listeners with the vulnerability of the music as if reading from a diary. The song holds space for raw, untailored emotion that comes from the heart, captured in self-aware lyrics and a powerful but gentle voice. "AM I HERE?" reveals SOLIE's journey of self-discovery through the aftermath of a violating and emotionally suffocating experience.

This force of music is introduced by harmonic keys and a danceable guitar riff that creates the perfect landscape for SOLIE's affecting voice. The singer's lyrics are a realized liberation from hegemonic expectations of what healing is supposed to look like. Specifically, this can be heard in the questioning chorus, "Am I here? Or am I there? Am I sure? I really don't care." The electronic percussion and keys that pick up about a minute into the song are eloquently produced and signify SOLIE's steady climb out of a previous dark time in life. A unique element of production in this song is the addition of a child's laughter, calling the listener's attention back to a time of simplicity before the complications of trauma and hardship mentioned in the song.

SOLIE shares that their alias was chosen for its meaning: "the sun." Specifically, the singer shares that they chose this name as it reflects the emotive genre of the songs on the EP, "these songs are a light at the end of the tunnel." SOLIE shares that the songs on this EP have cumulatively taken eleven years to form into what they are on the day they were released, growing and molding to who the artist has become. This EP is the first of SOLIE's music to be formally introduced to the world. The singer shares that "after years of trauma and pain, there is hope and these songs are just a glimpse into the past, future, and all the messy in-between."

Written By Azalea Withrow

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