Alessia Cara – This Summer EP

By Sydney Davis

Back in July of this year, Alessia Cara announced the release of This Summer EP and said she would release a new single “every couple of weeks” leading up to the release of the EP. The first single, “Ready” was released on July 22, the second single, “Rooting for You”, was released on August 9, the third single, “OKAY OKAY”, was released on August 23, and the fourth single, “October”, was ironically released on September 3.  Then finally on September 6 Cara released This Summer EP.

Since it’s an EP and not an album Cara kept it short but sweet and gave her fans 6 new songs. She kicked off the EP with the song “Ready” which gave a different vibe than we usually hear from her. It has an upbeat pop instrumental with a little bit of a reggae sound, and the song expresses her major self-confidence and comfort in her own skin. It also is a jab against people who are too immature to be in a relationship with her and not ready to handle her personality and everything she brings to the table. “Ready” was a nice start to the EP, it gains attention due to its different sound and sets the stage for the theme really well.

The next three songs “What’s on Your Mind?”, “Like You”, and “OKAY OKAY”, I really liked due to their drum heavy beats, mixing pop with a little hip hop. Cara had a lot of fun singing on these songs, she mixed up the way she sang her verses and certain lines, even her ad-libs and back-up vocals were creative. These songs also showed off her confidence, basically saying she’s done putting up with the games in relationships and essentially telling people to get right or get left. “Rooting for You” had a real funky beat that she sang over so smoothly that makes you want to groove to it.

“October” was a great choice to end this EP. By the end of September summer is officially over, and October is a definite fall month. Cara uses this song to express how she is going to miss a great summer she had when it’s all over, which is understandable because she spent the summer touring with Shawn Mendes on her “The Pains of Growing” Tour, her tour ends later this fall. The October she’s referencing could also be a metaphor for a summer fling that she doesn’t want to end or change when fall returns.

Even though it might be expected that an EP entitled This Summer would be released at the beginning of summer, her choice to release the EP at this time made perfect sense because it gave a storyline of how her summer went and what she learned. Overall, the EP was a nice treat from Cara, it showed off her unique voice over really cool beats, and it just emphasized her confidence.

Rating: 7.5/10

Favorite Track: “OKAY OKAY”