Arriving just a little over a year after the release of his sophomore album, joke’s on you, guccihighwaters has emerged with his dynamic new EP, heartbreak highway. His first major label release, heartbreak highway marks the beginning of a new era and finds the producer and songwriter refining his sound with six diverse, emotional songs.
“crash my car,” the EP’s frantic opener tells the story of an unhealthy obsession, with guccihighwaters declaring “I’d crash my car just to see you”. Carried by an infectious hook and even catchier chorus, it kicks things off on the right foot, and the songs that follow just continue to showcase his songwriting prowess. While the atmospheric “dancing with the stars” slows things down a little bit, the album’s emotional peak easily comes on the stunning stripped down, “believe,” which finds guccihighwaters pleading, “Do you not believe in love? / That’s what you’re telling me / I can’t take this feeling / It’s so menacing.”
Meanwhile, the second half of the EP takes on a bit of a darker tone, with “devil on my shoulder” driven by emotional vocals and a simplistic beat as guccihighwaters begs, “Tell me that you love me even though it ain’t true”. The melodramatic “roses” then perfectly flows into the synth-pop influenced “the chase”, which serves as the perfect bookend and sequel to “crash my car”, with the line, “I don’t know what you want / But I don’t want you to go away” perfectly embodying the lyrical themes of the EP.
heartbreak highway certainly lives up to its namesake, with all six songs bleeding bittersweet emotion. guccihighwaters manages to accomplish in just six songs what some artists struggle to do with a full-length release, with each track on heartbreak highway following a very clear theme and telling a full story of, you guessed it, heartbreak.