The manner in which Ava Valianti presents herself in Hot Mess is somehow quiet the part of the impressiveness. Being only sixteen, she does not sound like someone who is trying to figure things out but a person who already knows that the confusion is a part of the deal. The song is lightly self-conscious, playful, a bit cynical, but there is an actual emotional tug behind the humour that makes the song stick.
The first thing that sinks in is her voice. It is gentle and intentional, as she knows when and where each note must fall. She does not force or push the emotion or sell it, but rather lets it slip. The vulnerability is punctuated by a calm confidence, that she is quite happy to sit with all the messy emotions, instead of spending time trying to cleanse them.
The chaos within is well reproduced in the production. Mellow tones rub against more coarse and distorted lines, making a space that is inhabited, but not refined to an absolute perfection. It is buzzing with anxiety and yet intimate, close to confessional. The song snuck into your ears as well, that is catchy in that easy manner, and still possessing a thoughtful weight that lingers in your mind even after the music has died away.
Hot Mess does not apologise about imperfection, lyrically. It smiles at it. Ava tackles growing pains with a sense of humour and candour, and she makes what might otherwise be an angst-ridden teenage experience a warmer and more earthly one. What is known here is that life gets noisy, emotions clash and at times the healthiest reaction is to laugh, breathe and move on.
Being one of the strongest songs in her first EP petunias, the song demonstrates a young artist without fears to experiment and be herself. It is gritty without being heavyhanded, familiar without being overly trying– a lesson that it is best to keep in mind that beauty can be found in the very midst of the mess.
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