Alice Auer - 'Greek Street'
Alice Auer returns to the music scene with her tender and pristine new single, ‘Greek Street’.
Greek Street is a vivid domestic sketch that narrates a moonlit first date in Soho. This slow, nostalgic sonnet vaguely resembles The Jam's English Rose, gently lullabying a tale of lost love. Alice Auer diverts from her deeply-rooted style of jazz, and instead branches out into further musical genres such as pop, folk and soul. Her delicate vocals are reminiscent of Lily Allen and Nora Jones, and showcase the style in simplicity – how stripping back layers of instrumental movement can leave you with something that is truly beautiful and refined.
Alice Auer said of the single "I wanted to create some contrast in the song emotionally and musically, so we wrote the lyrics from the perspective of someone who had that relationship, that experience, that romance – but lost it and longs to have it back." This contrast is present throughout the song, with frequent use of opposing images: 'hot', 'cold', 'fire', and 'winter'. This binary opposition reflects the distinction between then and now; the golden past and the sombre present.
The song's final wave of 'la la's' seems to emulate the closing notes of Mira's Special Death. Alice Auer maintains the balance of acting under the influence of established musical artists, yet maintaining her own honesty and originality throughout. The following line and long-standing metaphor 'but I'm burning at the thought, I miss the cold' is particularly memorable, as it elicits an underlying sadness of what might have been.
Now is your opportunity to binge-listen to Alice Auer's Greek Street as many times as I have, before her second solo project is released later this year.
Words by Charlotte Jolley
