Last Birthday EP Review
Written by Cassidy Brohl
Photo by Becca Hamel
Meet VALLEY, the indie pop band from Toronto, Canada who have recently toured with COIN, released an EP titled Last Birthday, and announced their first ever headlining tour for this year. Not only have they been working hard and doing great things these past few months, but they also have just released three new songs titled “The After Party” on Jan. 12. This single includes “Last Birthday”, “7 Stories”, and “Paper Cup (sorry for myself)”. The anticipation for these songs to be released has been unreal since the band admitted on Twitter that their favorite song coming out was an unreleased song––that song being “Last Birthday”. After anxiously waiting many months (and being a huge fan of the band), I got the chance to listen and review these songs exclusively!
Last Birthday: This song has to be one of my all time favorites songs of theirs! Listening to the upbeat chorus really reminds me of “It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You” by The 1975. “Last Birthday” is such a sweet song that repeats the words “I’ll be with you” and proceeds to list messy situations that the person is willing to go through with them because they love them so much. Describing how they will be with their favorite person until the end of time really gives this song it’s name, quoting “I’ll be with you on your last birthday.” No matter what the other person goes through and even if they aren’t with them romantically in life, they will still do everything to be with them, which is a really beautiful meaning. This song has to be my favorite off the single with its pop sounding chorus and meaningful lyrics behind it. I absolutely love everything about this song!
7 Stories: Starting off with chill vibes at the beginning, I already got the feeling that this song was going to be an emotional one for me. Noticing that the recurring theme of these tracks is always being there for the people you love no matter what happens, “7 Stories” is a very personal song. The band really poured their hearts out, especially when the lyrics “But I would still hold on” reoccur. The bridge has phenomenal vocals and you can feel the heartbreak when listening to this. At the end, they finish off with heart-tugging words and a mellow sounding beat. I will definitely be adding this to my sad playlist to cry to.
Paper Cup (sorry for myself): Just looking at the title of this song made me already assume this was going to be a sad one, so I mentally prepared as best as I could. This song talks about struggles the band has dealt with ranging from issues of loneliness, growing pains, the difficulties of being an artist and much more (giving the song the “sorry for myself” title). The band really lays out everything they have been wondering and questioning in life on this song. The more I listened, the more the piano and vocals pulled at my emotions. By singing about the problems everyone deals with in life, VALLEY does something so special with their music and I personally feel like “Paper Cup (sorry for myself)” is their most relatable song yet. The subject of getting older and learning how to grow up is something so raw, and this track is definitely one to help you get through it. In particular, a lyric that tugged my heart a lot was “And nobody would find me, no need for being lonely.” Fellow band member and lead vocalist, Rob Laska, also portrays how important the other band mates are to him. In a TikTok the band posted, Laska revealed that this track is about his band almost breaking up, and how they faced many obstacles that couldn’t be solved with drowning away said problems or feelings. This is definitely another song to add to my crying playlist as it felt like they were specially speaking to me.
Photo by Becca Hamel
VALLEY has done it again with three more phenomenal, emotional songs. These songs are so dear to my heart and I cannot wait to see them grow as a band this year with their headlining tour. Being a fan of this band for many years and seeing how much they have grown ever since opening for COIN on their Rainbow Dreamland Tour, and finally hearing these songs for the first time really makes me emotional when I start thinking about how far they have come. Performing these songs live and just hearing them alone is going to be a very emotional moment not only for the band, but also for the listeners themselves. I highly recommend giving all three of these songs a listen, in addition to their previous works. 2022 is the year for VALLEY!
Don’t forget to catch VALLEY on tour starting February!
