New Music: Emily Burns - Too Cool

“You’re so sweet like twelve ice creams, it kind of makes me sick,” sings Breaking More Waves favourite and regular Emily Burns on her brand new track Too Cool. This one, a peppy number about the perfect girlfriend who is just too nice once again demonstrates Emily’s ability to sneak in a 100% ear-popping chorus without you even realising it. 

The video amplifies the message even further, for here we get Emily pouring water over her completely unphased partner, blowing over her playing card castle and generally being a pest, with her opposite half just smiling her way through the whole thing. 

You would think we all just want people we interact with to be nice wouldn’t you? After all it’s better than being horrid, but just like music, sometimes ‘nice’ just doesn’t feel real enough. 

After last year's excellent pop on mini album Seven Scenes from the Same Summer and the track she made with Studio Black, Friends Don't Kiss Friends, which has picked up 6 million streams on Spotify alone, Emily Burns shows no sign of slowing down with the hooks. 

Emily Burns - Too Cool

New Music: Emily Burns - Test Drive

The fact that Emily Burns is able to do a good song has never really been in question has it? This blog was full of her creations and they all justified that she was a bona fide talent.  But now they’re gone. All those old songs like Plasters, Glitters and Glue and Enemy seem to have been buried in whatever the internet’s version of the graveyard is, perhaps never to return. 

Thankfully though there’s plenty more out there to enjoy now and perhaps have a little dance to. For Emily has released a mini album / EP (I’m not quite sure which it is - there's 7 songs clocking in at just over 20 minutes) with a title that sounds like a movie: Seven Scenes from the Same Summer. It’s a snapshot of a point in time that delves into the joys and sadness of relationships starting, relationships ending, Sundays in bed and Emily discovering who she is.

Another alternative title could have been Seven Pop Jams from Heaven, because every single one is. 

You’ll already be familiar no doubt with the likes of Cheat and Bitch (which I featured here) but today I’m featuring the record's opening track Test Drive. 

A deft and modern piece of electronic pop, Test Drive some good punchy shouts of “Hey!”, one use of the F-Word and a naughty little chorus that finds Emily using the analogy of a car to describe how she doesn’t want to be used as a test drive for the weekend (or a joy ride in the evening). For even more amazing car analogies take a listen to the lyrics of the Grace Jones song Pull Up To My Bumper. Now that’s a really naughty tune.

Stream Test Drive below and the six other songs of Seven Scenes From The Same Summer on any streaming service. Those of you who remember Emily from my early blog posts in her unsigned days you will also be pleased to hear the album isn’t all spanking shiny electronics with songs like Vanilla Sundae and Senseless giving some nice variation as she goes back to her more acoustic roots. 

Emily Burns - Test Drive

New Music: Emily Burns - Bitch

Regular / long term readers of Breaking More Waves will recognise the name Emily Burns; she first appeared on this blog back in 2013 with a now long deleted song called Plasters, Glitter and Glue. At the time I compared her to a new wave of young acoustic singer songwriters that were making a name for themselves; Ed Sheeran, Gabrielle Aplin and Nina Nesbitt.

Since then Emily’s music has transitioned from vocals and acoustic guitar to out and out contemporary pop which we last heard in 2016 with the Sound of Fractures produced Take It Or Leave It, a quality cut which picked up some traction on music blogs. 

Now the 22 year-old is back with new pink hair and her most of-the-moment tune so far. It seems that her momentum is continuing as Bitch isn’t self-released, but through 37 Adventures – a label that has brought you the likes of Rosie Lowe, Jones and Salute.

Bitch finds Emily looking back at a past friendship / relationship and wondering how that person has been doing since they went their own ways and reflecting on what she’s heard of that other person, as they have mutual friends: “You say you’re flying now I’m gone, don’t care about me no more, you think I’m crying well I’m not, I’ve never been quite this sure.” It’s quite a jam and then some. 

Bitch was produced by biLLLy and recorded at Abbey Road Studios, where she works as a receptionist and used her down-time there to record. It’s not the first time Emily has recorded in the famous studios though having bagged the opportunity to record some of her earlier work there a number of years ago after attending a BBC Introducing masterclass session.

Bitch is spikey, full spirited and likely to make the ears of any pop fan tingle with excitement.

Emily Burns - Bitch

The Sunday Surf #3

This is the 3,000th post on Breaking More Waves. That’s an awful lot of writing. Probably around three quarters of a million words. There’s been rushed rants in my work lunch break, late night outpourings of love for songs written when most reasonable people are getting ready for bed, early morning keyboard bashing before breakfast and compositions knocked off on laptops whilst on long (and short) train and coach journeys. In that time I’ve also posted 37,500 tweets and 640 pictures on Instagram and still managed to have a full life outside of the world of the internet. 

So now I'm at 3,000 I'd just like to say a quick thank you to every single person that has ever visited this blog, even if you only came here because of a Google image search for a popstar in the bath. I could say it's because of you that this blog keeps going, but that's a lie. It's because of me that this blog keeps going. I bloody write the thing. 

Now without further ado, here is this week’s Sunday Surf. 3 songs that you may or may not have heard – but hopefully you’ll find something here of merit.

Emily Burns – Take It Or Leave It

Over the course of 3,000 posts I've featured 4 different singers named Emily. Emily & The Woods, Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo, Emilie Nicolas and this one. Emily Burns first surfaced here in 2013. Take It Or Leave It shows her musical progression with a beautiful piece of modern chiming electronic pop that finds Emily standing at a relationship crossroads. Is it going to be just friends or is it time to become lovers? Either way, it’s delightfully pretty sounding and Breaking More Waves definitely takes this one.



Sad Palace – Breeze

A band that labels their music as supernatural groove rock was clearly born in the wrong decade. Images of big flares, long leopard print coats, long hair, bad beards and moustaches and prolific use of the words “cool man” and “vibey” are instantly brought to mind. Sad Palace also state that they’re from the ‘south coast’ which hints that they are probably not from Brighton; because it often seems that many a band from outside of that particular seaside city seems embarrassed of its location. Having said that, this very blog tags itself as being from ‘south-central’ so maybe I have something in common with Sad Palace. Certainly an earlier model of Sad Palace, with a different name, featured on Breaking More Waves, way back in 2011 and subsequently did OK on blog aggregator Hype Machine. You’d have to call in the cavalry before I could bear to tell you the name of that previous version though. 

With just two tracks on line, newbie Breeze is a bit all over the place, but in a good way. Like free-jazz gone indie. So, let’s call it free-indie. So, that’s south coast free indie supernatural groove rock. Yeah man. Breaking More Waves digs this.



The XX – On Hold

By now you’ve surely heard this? But just in case you haven’t, here we find The XX returning with a piece of pure magic. Incorporating a pitch shifted sample of Hall and Oates I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do), Jamie, Oliver and Romy manage to create something that is clearly the work of The XX but also shows a subtle development in their sound. Even though the words might be sad: “When are where did we grow cold/” the song sounds positively uplifting. The finest of comebacks.

Emily Burns - Homewrecker

“Lord I’m a homewrecker,” Emily Burns sings on her new spicy not-giving-a-damn pop jam and for a moment you can’t be anything but a little bit taken back. After all Emily sounds such a nice person and yet here she is getting all lusty about someone that she probably really shouldn’t. She knows it as well: “I don’t want to be a homewrecker, I just can’t seem to get over ya.” It will all end in tears we can assure you.

Whatever naughtiness Emily has been up to, we’re immorally glad she has though, as this one grinds and grooves in all the right places, armed with of the moment r’n’b flavours and an earworm of a chorus. On the evidence of the material she’s released to date, we think it’s time someone gave Emily Burns a record deal. Come on music industry.

Emily Burns - Homewrecker

Emily Burns - Counting Seconds

Back in October we streamed Enemy by Emily Burns, a song that we described as her most assured to date. Scrub that, because she’s just gone one, possibly two, better. 

Counting Seconds finds Emily wanting to reconcile a relationship after everything’s gone wrong. “When I’m not mad anymore, and I’m not angry like before, I wonder if you’ve gotten over this too,” she ponders before she hits the subtle but show-stopping chorus. With its quiet layered harmonies, gentle beat and soft keys this ballad of sad desire, of wanting to get back together, is the prettiest thing we’ve heard all week.

Counting Seconds is currently free to download from Emily’s Soundcloud. 

Emily Burns - Counting Seconds

Emily Burns - Enemy

Back in 2013 Emily Burns featured on Breaking More Waves in one of our ‘New Waves’ introducing pieces having impressed with her self-penned acoustic pop and the song Plasters, Glitter and Glue. That song and the others on her Soundcloud have now disappeared and have been replaced with 3 new tracks all of which show a big step forward.

It seems that Emily has found a groove. The guitar is out and in its place there’s a slicker modern production that takes in elements of r’n’b, disco and pop. On Mr Heartbreaker things are slinky and slow and Control is dance floor friendly and hot under the collar.

It’s the third of the newbies, uploaded today, that finds Emily giving us her most assured song to date. Recorded at Abbey Road studios with Pearse MacIntyre and Rob Cass, Enemy is constructed from laid back pianos and loose drums, with Emily singing of the one that got away. Its gentle sound works well, showing Emily's development and new found maturity. Let's hope its not so long before we feature her again on these pages.

Emily Burns - Enemy

Emily Burns - New Waves

Today’s new artist has already recorded at Abbey Road and played London’s O2, yet the chances are you’ve not heard of her. So let us introduce you to 18 year-old Emily Burns from Rugby, Warwickshire and if the likes of Nina Nesbitt and Gabrielle Aplin are your thing, then Emily could just be your new favourite singer. There are five songs on Emily’s Soundcloud page and every single one is a big scoop of sugar coated, chocolate sprinkled, hook laden, melodic acoustic pop.

So how has Emily already played the O2? OK, first we should clarify it’s the Indigo 02, not the huge Arena venue next door. How did Emily get there? By entering Live and Unsigned and negotiating her way through the heats to bag a place at the final in London. She didn’t win the competition, but as we all know the best artist never usually does (exception to the rule: Girls Aloud). Since then she’s attended a BBC Introducing masterclass session and following that was given the opportunity to record at Abbey Road. Not bad going for someone who is only just old enough to buy a drink in a pub.

Emily’s songs are typical nuggets of the life of a teenager and of course that means relationships. “Maybe we’re not perfect we’ve got flaws, but I know that I’m always going to be yours,” she sings on the two minute ditty You Make Me Free which subtly reminds us a little of Birds by Kate Nash in its lyrical simplicity and directness, but with the delivery of a female Ed Sheeran . The Sheeran influence continues on Making Time, in fact it wouldn’t surprise us at all if the ginger one co-wrote this, it’s so similar to his style. It’s not all the joys and excitements of never ending teenage love though: “Take me to A&E, they can fix my broken heart,” she sings on the summery sounding pop of Plasters, Glitter and Glue which we're streaming below. Bless her.

Next on Emily’s adventures are some selective festival slots this summer – keep an eye out if you’re at T in the Park or The Secret Garden Party on the smaller stages. Emily will be cropping up there. She'd make a fine way to start your day.

Emily Burns - Plasters, Glitter and Glue