Can You Handle the Silver Sphere?

Promotional picture for Silver Sphere’s “handle me”

Some things you should know about Silver Sphere: she likes to write about late night drives (especially ones that occur after parties), her voice sounds like a diamond, and she loves heartbreak!!!

I still remember the way 16-year-old me felt when I first heard Silver Sphere’s enthralling, understated synth-pop music on Bandcamp. She made me want to get my heartbroken so I could feel the way she felt. She inspired me endlessly; I wrote my emotions down more frequently, and I savored the hopelessly romantic feelings I felt about whichever high school crush was causing me distress at the time. Tunes like “dark long drive” and the original demo of “lost cause“ were the soundtrack to my 16th year.

Since, I’ve loved watching her grow as a musician, both within her music and in her online presence. Which brings us to today!! (Enough about me lol).

Silver Sphere, henceforth referred to as Silver, has developed a cunning, relatable, and dazzling presence within the Pop scene, her cheeky tunes and seamless persona captivating teens and music enthusiasts since the studio release of “Drinking Games” (rip “Darling Don’t”).

Finally, Silver has released a second EP. In this new project, “All My Boyfriends”, Silver tackles “the most magical painful euphoric life changing life lesson-learning time in (her) life” (via: Silver Sphere’s Instagram). Her music has been shifting into a beautiful shimmering blend of pop songstresses like Charli XCX and Taylor Swift. Since she moved to Chicago in 2017 to pursue a full-time music career, Silver has worked with “Post-Pop” producers such as Umru and Dylan Brady. Their glitchcore-adjacent sounds manifest themselves within Silver’s newest EP in a tasteful and supplemental way, all the while maintaining more classic songwriting styles and her usual pulsing bass and synth combination.

Something special about Silver is her saccharine intersection between vulnerability and confidence, her melodies softly yet catchily encompassing the highs and lows of love and adolescence. She does all of the above in the new EP. The project starts on an extremely strong note, “ghosts!” a super fun song about a cold break up, in which she feels the ghost of her ex-lover in every room. This tune, along with a lot of the EP, have the perfect blend between her iconic, developed, sparkly sound and the humble charm of her 2016 demos. What sets “ghosts!” apart, however, is the insanely hypnotic, head-bumping drop at the refrain. The buttery guitars on top of the more electronic, versatile percussion make it a perfect tune for dancing in the shower, driving with a friend on a late night, or anything in between.

The three middle tracks, “crowd”, “disappear”, and “handle me” respectively, are a fun culmination, all running together, capturing the narrative of her love stories in an honest, glamorous, and heartfelt manner. “disappear” especially is a synth-heavy ballad, both her vocoded and raw vocal tracks sounding like a mf diamond!!!??? (Lmk if you agree). Again with the driving in a car with a silly boy themes! A relatable motif!!!!

The EP ends with the emotionally honest, reverb saturated "glow”. With an ear-worm for a chorus, she seemed to find closure within herself and with the lover(s) depicted in the EP’s preceding love story. This song, and the EP in general, is everything the ~Silver Sphere~ stands for, unabashed hopeless romanticism and all.