From the beginning of his Bedroom Pop path, mellow arthouse musician, ROLE MODEL has released singles defined by subtle vocals, delicate production, and heavy emotions. Ten tracks towards his debut EP have laid a foundation for success, and perhaps even more obvious, have laid the framework for a desire to remain out of the limelight for every reason other than getting his music to the ear of whoever it was that broke his heart in the first place. You see, the majority of his penmanship falls in line with youthful heartbreak, while his sound at large falls out of line with any sort of musical lane conceived before the modern Bedroom Pop explosion. And being such a youthful styling, ROLE MODEL himself has been a heavy hitter in its as of now, still emerging form. 

 

His debut project, oh, how perfect is a continuation of Bedroom Pop’s emergence. But more importantly, it’s a refinement of ROLE MODEL’s texture and musicality, honing in on the emotionality that his imperfect vocal delivery and deep-diving songwriting skills bring to the table, while experimenting with everything else, creating homemade, angst-ridden pop music for Generation Z. 

 

hello! Is the sole cut taken from his pre-existing canon that had an array of delicate hits from which to choose. But, those hits – girl in new york, not a fan, minimal, play the part – perhaps would have not worked in cohesion well enough to drive forward a project as form fitting as oh, how perfect. 

 

From start to finish, the EP is rides the minimalist wave while giving fans a whole lot of new music. At its softest points it’s teetering on a new era of acoustic pop, shining the spotlight on ROLE MODEL’s lyricism and the voice with which he conveys it. On the opposite end, it never ramps up past hello! or that’s just how it goes – the latter of which is undeniably texturally reminiscent to Imagine Dragons in solo Neo-Grunge form. 

 

As a whole, oh, how perfect is well worth the anticipation. It holds true to the unpredictability and emotion-driven path that he’s paved to this point, while exploring a vast range of pop and pop-adjacent inspiration from the past decade or more. It reminds its listeners of a lot of past scenes – early 2000’s alt rock, 2010’s indie pop, modern bedroom pop – without adhering to any of them directly. In its non-definition exists its truth – ROLE MODEL’s truth – as a songwriter and emotional youngster simply making simple music for others to relate to.