Melbourne-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and versatile musician Gabrielle Emery, widely known by her moniker EMEREE, holds listeners captive with her latest single, “Smooth Honey.” Set against the backdrop of vintage-flavoured Motown, this soulful R&B track encircles a complex dimension of female sexuality. It is a solid queer banger that dips into themes of desire, self-expression, and courage to speak one’s truth.
Borrowing from her own experiences and emotions, it’s quite the relatable tale: crushing on a close friend, the first instance of a real crush on a girl. “I used it as an opportunity to say the things I was too afraid to tell her,” EMEREE says, infusing the track with an incredibly infectious honesty. The track is narratively compelling, along with absorbing production value, and places “Smooth Honey” up there as one of the best in the contemporary R&B genre.
With such an addictive groove base of the track, the layers of EMEREE’s multi-layered voice glide with grace across the top, making the track hard to resist. Every turn within the track contains little surprises, keeping the listener almost on the edge of their seat. There are high notes, and then there’s EMEREE’s – some of which reach the high Cs that Ariana Grande would be proud of – that leaves one in awe of her four-octave vocal range.
Drawing parallels to pop behemoths RAYE and Cleo Sol, the personification of classic soul’s most colossal, Amy Winehouse, EMEREE welcomes fans into her world of self-discovery and finding power in “Smooth Honey.” While EMEREE continues to push the face of contemporary R&B forward, “Smooth Honey” is a new empowering anthem of desire, expression, and having the courage to be yourself.
You can find more of EMEREE at:
You can listen to ‘Smooth Honey’ below:
Karen Harding is a Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, founder of Sounds On The Couch, and founder and operator of boutique music PR service for emerging and independent artists, Rise Indie.