Lennon Stella dropped her latest project Three. Two. One. in which she shares ballads about complicated relationships and personal recollections through both melancholy and upbeat tracks.
Lennon Stella has been in the spotlight since she was a child, as she launched her acting career in 2012, playing Maddie Conrad in the musical-drama series Nashville. Stella performed musically with her sister before going solo, under the name Lennon & Maisy. Her solo music career launched in 2018 when she signed with RECORDS and Columbia Records and released her debut EP, Love, Me.
Now, the 20-year-old indie pop artist continues to improve on her sound, and almost every track she releases is a bop. The 13-track album Three. Two. One. consists of Stella blending both feelings of heartbreak and the automatic maturity she experienced as a child star.
“Much Too Much” was a strong start to the album, with her beautiful melodies gliding with the catchy electronic beats. The way she repeats the ends of certain lines on each verse adds on to the catchiness of the song, giving it that classic pop feel. The lyrics depict Stella struggling to let go of a toxic relationship due to her fear that in the future, she will regret it and remember the best parts of it.
Stella sings as if she is speaking to the significant other she is afraid to lose: “Tell me I should stay, tell me that I'm wrong / Maybe if we wait, then all this will be gone / And what if we're just, just a little too late? / Just a little too little / Haven't we got a little much too much to lose?”
“Fear Of Being Alone” is a deeply honest track in which Stella admits her true reason for being afraid to let go of a toxic relationship. She explains how once she ends a relationship, her loneliness gets in the way of her logic. Her soft voice and backing vocals along with the 808s create a hit that listeners can dance to and let out their emotions from connecting with the relatable lyrics.
Stella expresses her struggles with letting go, even though she knows whatever feelings were between her and her significant other are no longer around. She sings, “No, they can't fix the type of silence that this is / But I can't take another lifeless, empty kiss / Still, I keep pushing back the time to call it quits.”
“Pretty Boy” has such a beautiful rhythm of synthetic instrumentals backing Stella’s angelic vocals. This track has a darkness to it, between the low tones of her voice and the low tempo of the production. Melancholy pop is one of the most experimental yet addictive genres to listen to. Stella is singing about how she knows there is a deeper personality and intelligence in a boy that most people see as just another pretty boy.
At the bridge of the track, Stella croons about the fact that a boy is hiding something deeper about him inside his mind but is afraid to share it with her, “Do you remember when you said / If I saw your trouble, I'd be scared? / Well, you're melting my heart / 'Cause you won't show me your cards, yeah.”
“Older Than I Am” is a track in which Stella explains how she lost her innocence when she was still a child, due to the fact that she rose to stardom when she was young. The pressure of being a child star led Stella to mature before the average child. The slow piano and faint sound of an orchestra backing her vocals create such an emotional appeal to the track.
Stella sings about the consequences of growing up as a child star: “Sometimes, I wish I could do something stupid / Be kinda reckless while I can / Say I don't give a d--- / But I'm older than I am.”
Overall, every track on Three. Two. One. clearly had a lot of thought put into it, and Stella does a fabulous job of putting her soul into the lyrics of each song. The emotions are heard. The mixture of both downbeat and upbeat production between songs creates a rollercoaster of emotions. A lot of the lyrics explain the confusion and toxicity that has been normalized in relationships today. The blend of heartbreak ballads and songs about premature adulthood created such a personal project from Stella.
