Miss Ashley Jeanโs new EP Off the Hinge comes from a deeply personal place, shaped by late-night overthinking, complicated almost-relationships, and trying to fit into beauty standards that were never made with real women in mind. AJ met producer and multi-instrumentalist Sean McVerry at a We Are Scientists show in Brooklyn, one of those fate-by-chance encounters, and his dreamy synth work became the backbone of this project. Recorded between bedrooms and living rooms from coast to coast, the EP carries that intimate, diary-to-voice-memo atmosphere.ย
The opening track, โNew Shape,โ shimmers dreamily, with drums that bustle beneath her soft, worn-out delivery. She sounds tired in a way that feels familiar, not defeated but exhaling years of trying. When she sings, โI have burned every scar, since twenty years of my flaws,โ it lands like the voice of someone who is learning to see herself without the filters. She further sings in another line, โIs this really me in the picture? I really donโt resemble her,โ taking down the lies of the American beauty standard.
Then โDigital Rosesโ leans into the surreality love that lives inside a screen. The track glints and floats, her grainy vocals barely brushing the surface. โ6 hours on the phone, hereโs my sun-kissed collarbone,โ she sings, half-playful and half-lonely. The longing is unmistakable, holding someoneโs attention but never their presence.
By โTwo Truths,โ the EP turns more vulnerable and self-aware. Soft piano and rumbling beats cradle her vocal, as she admits the uncomfortable nuances of dating men. She sings, โThe only truth you ever want from me is she is screwing every man she meets,โ speaking of insecurities that form as reality in their heads.
Off the Hinge comes very reflectively, like someone is learning to stop shrinking herself. Listen to it on Spotify.
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Review by: Naomi Joan