Four Pink Walls (EP)
Four Pink Walls | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
EP by | ||||
Released | August 26, 2015 | |||
Recorded | 2014–2015 | |||
Length | 17:36 | |||
Label | Def Jam | |||
Producer | Pop & Oak | |||
Alessia Cara chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Four Pink Walls | ||||
|
Four Pink Walls is the debut extended play (EP) by Canadian singer Alessia Cara. It was released on August 26, 2015 through Def Jam. With all songs containing writing by Cara, the preview of her upcoming debut studio album Know-It-All also includes major songwriting and production contributions from the duo Pop & Oak.
Garnering positive reviews upon its release, Four Pink Walls reached number 11 on the Canadian Albums Chart and number 31 on the United States Billboard 200 chart. The EP has sold 12,000 copies in the US as of October 2015.[1] The single "Here" from the EP became Cara's first top five hit on the Hot 100.
Composition
A series of slow-tempo R&B and bouncy pop songs, Four Pink Walls feels "more like a personal manifesto than a party playlist", explains Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone.[2] It opens with the joyous "Seventeen", which was described by Spanos as a "savvy update" of the songs "At Seventeen" by Janis Ian and Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide".[2] Containing big beat drums,[3] a vocal loop, a simulated handclap, and rousing chords, the song regards Cara, singing with an annoyed attitude, listening to her parents and valuing her childhood. While being accepting, she responds to her mother's advice about staying grounded with "Yeah, I guess that sounded nice when I was 10."[4] The song was written when Cara was about eighteen: "It was a whole bunch of feelings. We got to talking in the studio with my dad and Sebastian — we all came up with this thing, like, let’s write about how life goes by really fast. My dad brought up that idea, and that’s why the first line is, ’My daddy says that life comes at you fast.’"[5] The track is followed by "Here", which displays Cara in a miserable experience at a party as an "anti-social pessimist" singing worryingly with samples of Portishead and Isaac Hayes and a minor key piano loop.[2][4][6]
The rest of Four Pink Walls consist of retro-style soul tracks with Cara's vocals being resemblant to
The EP closes with the boom bap neo soul title track, noted by Bromwich to be most similar to "Here".[4] Coming up with the idea of the song at the beginning of her career, Cara had written much of it during her increasing popularity: "I didn’t want to wait for the next album or the next project to put it out. I wanted to tell the story while it was happening." The rest of the song was written one day while driving to the studio.[5] With elements of Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu on her comfortable vocal delivery,[4] the title song involves Cara singing over a breakbeat and humming synthesizer[3] about her sudden popularity, saying that she went "from ‘when boredom strikes’ to ‘Ms. Star on the Rise".[4] She also sings, "But those four pink walls, I kind of miss them, man", the "four pink walls" representing her bedroom, where she recorded her first clips she uploaded to YouTube that got her discovered by Def Jam.[4]
Release and promotion
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Pitchfork | 6.6/10[4] |
Rolling Stone | [2] |
Four Pink Walls, a preview of Cara's upcoming debut studio album, Know It All, was originally planned for release on Friday August 28, 2015, but the date was later moved two days before to Wednesday August 26. Cara reasoned, "We were like, let's just do it. I can't do it anymore, I just want to release everything, so I did… I thought it would be cool to surprise everyone and put it out early."
Reviews of Four Pink Walls were positive. On the review aggregate website
Track listing
Credits adapted from Allmusic.[6]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Seventeen" | 3:33 | ||
2. | "Here" |
|
| 3:19 |
3. | "Outlaws" |
|
| 3:23 |
4. | "I'm Yours" |
|
| 3:49 |
5. | "Four Pink Walls" |
|
| 3:32 |
Total length: | 17:36 |
- Notes
- ^[a] signifies a co-producer.
- "Seventeen" contains an interpolation of "My Girl" by The Temptations, written by William Robinson Jr. and Ronald White.
- "Here" contains a sample from "Ike's Rap II", written and performed by Isaac Hayes.
Charts
Chart (2015) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[13] | 11 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[12] | 21 |
US Billboard 200[14] | 31 |
References
- ^ "Upcoming Releases". Hits Daily Double. HITS Digital Ventures. Archived from the original on October 29, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e Spanos, Brittany (September 10, 2015). "Alessia Cara's New Album: Four Pink Walls". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e J. Warren, Michael (August 28, 2015). "Alessia Cara Four Pink Walls". Exclaim!. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ Pitchfork Media. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ Viacom. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
- ^ Rovi Corporation. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
- ^ ac (July 29, 2015). "fun fact about my EP: the cover was taken with my iphone hahaha". Twitter. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
- SpinMedia. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
- ^ Beauchemin, Molly (May 26, 2015). "Alessia Cara Transcends a Party in the "Here" Video". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
- ^ Diblasi, Loren (August 26, 2015). "Alessia Cara Drops Debut EP 'Four Pink Walls' Two Days Early". MTV. Viacom. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
- ^ a b "Charts.nz – Alessia Cara – Four Pink Walls EP". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ "Alessia Cara Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ^ "Alessia Cara Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 18, 2015.