Fiona Lee captures the spirit of growing up in her debut EP, ‘Nothing Compares to Nineteen’.
Greeting adulthood is not always pretty and Fiona Lee faces this head on, bravely shining light on the dark and dingy corners of it and candidly sharing her experiences with depression, bad relationships, body image and grief.
This unflinching depiction of growing up, flaws and all, is clearly one that resonates with a lot of people as the title track and second second single, ‘Nothing Compares To Nineteen’, has racked up over 100,000 streams on Spotify. This melodic indie-rock tune echoes Sam Fender with its guitar riffs and raw lyrics as Fiona Lee reminisces on her experiences with depression. The track ends with a bold and emotive shout ‘silence is a killer’– ultimately emphasising the importance of being vocal about your mental health.
The EP’s second track, ‘Mother’, is a rock tune with a folk twist which pleads for parental guidance after a relationship turns bad– ‘I believed in him when he had me by the throat’. Lee’s vocals in this song are powerful and impassioned, the anger that she clearly felt towards this past experience strongly shines through. Even the instruments sound as though they are angry; the guitar solo is full of angst and the drums are heavy and loud.
‘When I Wake Up I’m Sad’ continues with the EP’s theme of uninhibited sharing of emotion and is undoubtedly Fiona Lee’s most raw and honest song. It is almost as if we are reading her diary, each lyric being an introspective confession of her thoughts and feelings. She shares her secrets with the listener, telling them that she's never been in love and touching on the grief she felt when she lost a close friend. Despite the downbeat lyrics, sonically the song is upbeat and drum-heavy, crafting a tune that has incredible potential for a great live performance.
Fiona Lee gives us a glance into her versatility with ‘Lavender’, a slower, more tender song where the floodlights are entirely on her angelic vocals. The EP comes to a close with ‘To Make Me Feel Good’, a song about social media and its negative effects on self-esteem and body image, an unfortunate yet unavoidable part of growing up.
