Charlie Raphael-Campbell - Julian EP

Charlie Raphael-Campbell

​Julian EP
self-released; 2018

​4.1 out of 5 - TOP ALBUM

By Matt Jensen

Charlie Raphael-Campbell is an eighteen-year-old musician from North London, UK who recently released Julian. The EP contains four fairly different sounding songs that display a boatload of talent.

Up first is “Lemon Moon.” This song in particular reminded me of Courtney Barnett. Raphael-Campbell has a carefree quality to her voice similar to Barnett. The song starts off with a lone acoustic guitar and vocals. An entire band comes in seconds later and really adds a lot of heft to the music.

Once the chorus hits I wasn’t expecting such a joyous and infectious chorus but there is it was and I loved it. The song is single worthy and I find it hard that anyone could not love these palatable melodies. There is just enough attitude as well.

“Re: Anne” which has a different feel. It’s a lot more melancholy but sounded just as good as the opener. The elements are warm and you get surrounded with an acoustic guitar, orchestral strings and some additional instrumentation that blends together perfectly. I thought the drums that come in about half-way through the song needed that extra energy that starts to make the song feel hopeful and quite beautiful. Raphael-Campbell’s vocals are covered in emotion and she pulls off this song with ease.

“Seashore Suicide” felt somewhere between the first two songs. It’s not as heavy and dripping with rock as the opener but the song is quite melodic with clean reverb laced guitars and has plenty of hooks.

Up next is the piano ballad entitled “Birds.” It’s a powerful closer. The last minute where the orchestral strings comes in is pure magic.

Raphael-Campbell is really young and has all the time in the world to gain an audience. This is a fabulous start and I would not be surprised if we heard a lot more from her in the not too distant future.

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