EP Review: Makes Me Smile

Ahjay Stelino has written some fantastic songs that require to chill, find a comfy couch and listen to the way the music tells a story in each song. The is a lot of space, dynamically and instrumentally to allow for each song to breath. It is something I haven’t heard in a while. It’s clear, clean and enjoyable.

The first song Are We Home Yet feels like a song a kid would be singing to themselves. It’s a wonderful flashback to the times of being young again, when we didn’t know the world was what it is now. Innocence.

While short and sweet, Makes Me Smile is a soft little ditty that certainly makes me smile. My only complaint here was that at just under two minutes, I would have loved to have heard more.

Eating My Mortgage For Breakfast brings the rock in a bluesy sort of way. A complete 180 to what we had heard in the first two songs. Crack up lyrics that I can relate to, it works well with a guitar solo to boot.

Book Of Love returns back to the softer side of things and showcases Ahjay’s guitar playing again. Strings and softly tapped drums lay down the foundation for this song. Its fantastic stuff.

Finally, Happy Holidays is a song played mainly on Ukulele. It is a song that Ahjay won an award at the adult category of the NZ Ukulele Songwriting Awards. Again, a soft little song that would make you smile and be happy.

Overall, I really enjoyed the amount of depth to this EP. Lyrically, it is a joy. Such descriptive and story like lyrics that are backed up by the perfectly arranged lyrics. It is something I would enjoy listening to in my car after a terrible day to cheer me up. It is something I would listen to when I feel on top of the world and want to keep that feeling going.

Well done Ahjay. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would love to hear more.