ELLA LANGLEY- hungover - Columbia Records Nashville

Since first bursting onto the radar in 2022 with “Country Boy’s Dream Girl,” Ella Langley has continually crafted her sound and elevated a buzz with each next release, culminating in the highly anticipated announcement of her debut album, Hungover (due out August 2, 2024).

As “Strangers,” her duet with Kameron Marlowe continues to impact strongly at country radio, her “paint the town blue” and “nicotine” have provided strong foundational teasers of things still to come later this summer.

She now gives us another look at the album with the release of its title track.

The song, co-written by Ella, Josh Kear, and Chris Tompkins, softly strums its acoustic glide through an overtone of moodiness that allows the raw edges of Langley’s voice to grip the emotional tugs weaved into comparative lyrics of a bad hangover and the morning after uneasiness of having gone back to an on again off again that you knew better than to revisit.

Through outstandingly written lines that paint a whiskey-soaked headspace from her next day perspective, the opening verse sees her lamenting on how his eyes get her drunker than a hundred proof, admitting that she’s been “drinking”  too much and needs to quit, and confessing that she overdid it the night before, all expertly designed to lead the strike of the chorus where she faces the mirror of regret:

“Yeah, I'm hungover

Still a long way from sober

Dammit, I'm hurtin'

This morning, I'm learning

How much that bourbon in your kiss don't lead to closure

And, yeah, I'm hungover”

Whereas the opening half of the song explores what led to another morning after regret, the second sees her understanding the toxic patterns as she internally battles how addicted she is to him whenever he kisses her while fully knowing that it’s only going to lead to heartache and take its toll on her again and again.

Ella Langley has absolutely found her space in navigating tough heartbreaks, an all-too-common emotion that we all experience. However, it’s the transparency she holds through her honest emotions combining with the proper anguish in her voice to match the arrangements and lyrics that are becoming her signature definitions.

“hungover” is another intriguing track to hype the album, certainly, but it’s also another that sees a vice as the centerpiece of a song’s essence, giving her an aura that while washed in commonality surrounds her with an air of unique mystery.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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