Taste Test, Edition #26: Cappa & Boyhood Bravery

Welcome to Taste Test, a review wrangling of SubmitHub-only gemstones.

“I Do” by Cappa

Carla Cappa is not afraid to take big risks. To-date, her work has been smothered in a commercial glisten but notably stained with heart-weathered lyrics. New entry “I Do” takes it a step further, leaning into the kind of viscerally-powered electrocution to get the veins pumping into overdrive and sending a shockwave throughout the entire system. CAPPA alights upon an unwavering bedrock, a construct of organic subtlety corkscrewed into synthetic materials that elicit a celestial state of being. “Don’t you want to come on over,” she coos. But don’t be fooled. She’s healing from the most devastating heartbreak of her life and wrestling with her own mind on whether to take back her toxic lover. Should she? You decide.

“Nests” by Boyhood Bravery

There is a stunningly tragic, yet breathtaking, majesty with folk tuner Luke Livingston. His melodies are enveloping, particularly with his new cut “Nests,” a fragile meditation on finding a haven within life’s ever-present uncertainty. “‘Tell me what you need from me,’ she whispers between the silence,” he mutters in a breathless sigh. His nuanced control is imposing upon the senses, shoving the listener into a hazy world of adventure and fear. “Grab your things, and grab your coat / And I’ll lock the door behind you / You know I will,” he vows, a ghostly backing vocalist coming up to meet his affirmation. Even as he casts off his trepidations, emerging more confident, there is a heavy melancholy that’ll never quite leave his shoulders. And that’s quite alright. Sometimes, we need such a presence to catapult us even higher into the heavens. Livingston is a force, and he’s just getting started.

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