Hailing from North London UK, Amber Olivier has just started out in 2018 with her self titled EP. The singer and songwriter started out posting videos on instagram and soon started collaborating with artists like Masego. She is not your regular R&B artist though. Amber is capable of creating dense atmospheres and bring worlds together. Her style ranging from 90s R&B to todays sample driven hip hop instrumentals. This is why we had to talk about her mind blowing song “When It’s Over”.
Where do I start? This song is so incredible that it’s hard to choose what I love about it the most. Let’s start with the intro and those beautiful vocal samples. I’m not sure but I believe it’s her own vocals that got mangled, pitched and processed. But those angel like choirs humming along smoothly just get under my skin. What a beautiful sound! Then the drums kick in and she starts with the first verse and it’s over! Well it’s never really over when it’s over but to me it was over! Please forgive me, pun intended. Anyway, Amber doesn’t waste time on this masterpiece. Right after the smooth first verse she pulls you right into the bridge part of the song which is even better and gives me extra goosbumps.
Then she takes you to musical paradise by hypnotizing you in the chorus repeating the title line. What a song! Let’s get into the production side a little more. The production is flawless but why is it? It’s rather sparse but everything is absolutely in the right place. It’s just a drum loop, lots of background vocals and some vintage synth sounds. Listen to how the bass drops when the bridge starts. And these high pitched synth line doing the chords notes by playing them up and down in an arpeggio. The vocal sample is now filtered and only lurks into the scene from afar. Instead you can hear some background vocals doubling her lead voice beautifully. Oooh that’s just perfect.
And then the tracks just seemlessly build up to explode smoothly into the chorus with more background vocals. There you can hear a male background vocal counterpart that just takes the chorus to another level. The feeling is real! This song is a masterpiece.
Of course we had to add it to our sweet playlist called “Neo-Soul Goosebumps”. Check it out here.
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