Back from more than a year-long hiatus, singer-songwriter Ashe just released her third album Willson on Sept. 6, 2024. After canceling her tour in early 2023 to focus on her mental health, Ashe hadn’t been heard from until she released a new single, “Running Out Of Time”, on June 28. Fans went into an uproar of excitement and could not wait until the full album was released.
Ashe has been releasing music since 2017, but not until her first album Ashlyn, released in 2021, did her success skyrocket. Her most popular songs, “Moral of the Story” and “Till Forever Falls Apart” brought many of her fans into her musical journey. All of her discography is amazing; however, Willson is her most mature and developed album she has written to date. One of the most interesting things about all of her albums is the titles, as they all add up to her full name. Her first album being her first name, Ashlyn, her second album (2022) being her middle name, Rae, and finally, her third album closing out her name with her last name, Willson.
Before the album was released, Ashe put out four different singles, “Running Out of Time”, “I Wanna Love You (But I Don’t)”, “I hope you die first”, and “Ashe”. The singles each showed her fans something different about her and built up anticipation for the album even more. Following these four singles the first song that the listeners would hear off the whole album would be “Please don’t fall in love with me”, the perfect opener.
In “Please don’t fall in love with me”, Ashe sings about all the warnings and reasons someone should not fall in love with her. Starting out slow and sad listing all the reasons she deserves to be unloved, “I’ll give you almost everything / I’ll melt myself to fit your mold / And carefully chip away my soul / […] / Oh please don’t fall in love with me”. Later this slow tempo diverges halfway through the song and builds into a suspenseful hard beat drop which opens up the song and makes Ashe sound more confident. The song then ends with the same slow tempo as it opened with and slowly fades out. Opening with this song was a great introduction to her album for her listeners.
A favorite on the album is the 9th track, “Castle”. Starting off with a mix of haunting piano and violin chords, Ashe’s eerie vocals create a mysterious effect. Later jumping into an energetic beat with a sudden drum clash, the song takes a turn. This song is a beautiful example of a track with an upbeat tempo and rhythm while also having excruciatingly sad lyrics. “Castle” is one of the most raw and emotional songs on the album. Ashe is incredibly truthful about what she went through with her mental health journey, which could be relatable for many. This track will have listeners wanting to dance around while crying.
The 10th track, “I hope you die first”, and also one of the third singles released alongside “I Wanna Love You (But I Don’t)”, is a very interesting song. While people normally tell their partner that they want to die before them, Ashe took the opposite approach. At first, this may seem hostile and mean, however, the way Ashe adds onto these five words is actually incredibly loving and sweet, “I don’t wanna die before you / Promise I’ll be right behind / But I should be there to hold your hand”. Ashe’s vocals are much different in this song than the rest; in “I hope you die first”, her vocals are very soft and it almost sounds as though she is only singing to one person rather than trying to make it fancy for the rest of the listeners.
The very last track of the album, ironically titled after her first name, is “Ashe”, which proves to be a great closing track. In contrast to the first song on the album, “Please don’t fall in love with me”, this track shows a much more confident side of Ashe. “Ashe” is about her learning to be comfortable with herself and starting to do what is best for her and not the people surrounding her. Starting the song off singing, “I’m learning to like myself for the first time”, Ashe begins a very smooth transition into the growth that this song will show. This track is also the perfect choice for a closing song because it ends with her beginning her healing process for everything that she went through with her mental health, which is the complete opposite from the fragile state that she conveys in “Please don’t fall in love with me”.
Overall, the album is an amazing comeback from Ashe’s hiatus and wonderfully tells her story to her listeners. Some honorable mentions from the album include “Cherry Trees”, “Helter Skelter”, and “I Wanna Love You (But I Don’t)”.
Willson is the perfect balance between heartbreaking songs and ones that are more upbeat, making the listeners feel happy for Ashe. However, some songs feel as if there could have been more added to them. At times, certain tracks could have been more upbeat and the tempos could have been better matched to some songs.
With that said, Willson is an amazing album filled with songs that make the listeners feel all kinds of different emotions, capturing Ashe’s experiences flawlessly. If you loved this album, go check out Older by Lizzy McAlpine for incredible lyricism and The Secret of Us by Gracie Abrams for more sad songs covered up by upbeat tempos.
9.8/10
