Review: "what we had" - Isabella Kensington

When a relationship ends, the partners involved mourn two separate aspects. The first aspect that’s mourned is the relationship itself. The second aspect that’s mourned is what the relationship could have been. This second grieving is the hardest to process because the possibility for this connection to be more never came into fruition – and we obsess over what could have been done differently for that possibility to become a reality. Isabella Kensington’s “what we had” depicts what this second mourning looks like.

The single “what we had” is an indie-pop ballad with a melancholic perspective. The song opens with faraway echoes of the song’s title, putting any listener who’s experienced a break-up in a nostalgic state for what could’ve been. When the first verse drops, listeners learn that the relationship at hand has met its “inevitable expiration date”. In the second verse, Kensington comforts her former partner by telling them “there’s no judgment” because processing this on top of readjusting to the world as an individual has been hard on her, too. In the following verses, listeners get to hear the artist’s difficulty with this process. She hopes that the former partner not only thinks of her when they do the things they had “planned to” do together, but the endearment they once felt for her lingers whenever they hear her name or see her face, too.

Isabella Kensington splits her time between London and New York. From creating covers to making her own music, Kensington has paved a noticeable space for herself within the pop sphere. The artist released her first EP “the story begins” this past fall. The EP features five singles that revolve around matters of the heart. The single “what we had” is the last single on the EP. If you’ve enjoyed Kensington’s music as much as I have, show the artist some virtual love in the form of streams, likes, and follows.

Written by Giavanna Gradaille

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