Review: Eleanor Kingston's "Highway"

To be young in today's modern age is to be turbulent and prone to instantaneous change. No one knows this as well as Eleanor Kingston, the teenager making waves with her latest track "Highway". Mixing sultry slow-jam vocals with light electronic beats, the song is new, engaging, and grooving, destined for a place in the dramatic pop realm that today's audiences are so engrossed in.

"Highway" opens with a synth line that walks the line of instrumental and electronic, before Kingston's lyrics kick in, already crooning an ode to modern romance. The song tells a tale of lust, love, and loss, all with a subtext concerning the volatility of reality. Lines like "don't wanna find out / you're trying to get through to my brain / not gonna play those games like who's there and who's gonna run" are blunt and direct, but their delivery leaves just enough of mystery to open the listener to introspection. They resonate with so many realities, and put the at-times-hard truth out there for what it is.

Structurally, the track is in full equilibrium. It balances out its far-reaching, high-energy chorus with slower, relaxed verses; though far from novel, this strategy works out beautifully for the song. It creates a more realistic and approachable vibe, one that doesn't require the audience to be constantly aware. Instead, listeners can let the song take them on its journey of its own accord, following the natural shifts until they find themselves invariably swinging to the beat.

Though it's just her second single (the first being the much darker "Demon Mind"), Eleanor Kingston's musical style exudes a well-deserved confidence and awareness. "Highway" shows a certain sense of connection not just to the self, but to the ubiquity of the modern world's issues. It's both a product of and a statement about today's society- one that isn't necessarily foreboding, but instead takes volatility and uncertainty in stride.

But even beyond the track's implications, "Highway" is simply a song that can be played on a loop without losing its edge. The strength, the emotion, and the power within it are still as palpable on the 50th listen as the first- a permanence that's only helped by the grooving, dark pop melodies that continue to draw in audiences. The balance and the overall feel of the song are clearly communicated, leaving a lasting impact that is felt well beyond the three and a half minutes that it spans.