[REVIEW] Eleni Drake Dives into the Complexities of Modern Dating and Lost Love with new Album CHUCK

British-Greek singer-songwriter Eleni Drake’s fourth album offers a tender rumination of love lost, its skilful lyricism exploring the complexity of emotions involved in the process.

★★★★

Gaining an early following sharing her music on YouTube, the artist remains true to her quiet, breathy vocal style and contemplative lyrics. The artist comprises part of the 2% of female producers in the world, producing all of her own music; her talent is steadily gaining recognition, being awarded a grant by the PRS Foundation to continue her work this past year. 

In a recent interview, she spoke of feeling disconnected when making music that she  liked listening to but that wasn’t true to her. Often drawing on her own life experiences, she describes making music that her younger self would have liked, allowing an  authenticity and vulnerability to shine through. 

Thematically, CHUCK explores the end of a past relationship; there is a simultaneous mourning of this loss combined with a realisation and acceptance that it was the right thing to happen. These internal contradictions - have I made the right decision? Do I still love them, or do I just not want to see them with anyone else? And perhaps most bitingly, am I the problem? Drake attempts to answer all of these questions across the album. Her vocals are consistently soft, breathy and tender; there is a certain closeness that makes it seem as if she’s whispering her most intimate inner thoughts into her listener’s ears.

‘A Wonder Day’ is a tender contemplation of an old love, gracefully intertwining melancholy with gratitude and acceptance of its end. Although there is regret over the relationship ending, there is still a deep appreciation for the person, offering a relatable and perhaps lesser explored post-breakup perspective. There is no bitterness in this track, and it is also notably absent throughout the album. 

‘The End’ in particular also shows that the end of a relationship does not have to be  bitter, but can involve acceptance. Here, Drake gives a raw insight into how the baggage of past relationships can continue to affect us moving forward in love. Her lyrics skilfully capture the ambivalence in wanting to move on whilst wistfully looking backwards in time, an exploration also addressed in ‘Brockwell’, amongst others. We can still mourn  the end of a relationship that we know wasn’t right. 

It seems the singer-songwriter uses the album as a self-reflection on her own inability to stay in a relationship as being partly of her own doing. The speaker (whether this be  Drake herself or a partly fictionalised version) is very much aware of her own flaws; in a  recently interview with Unraveled Edit, the singer-songwriter writes of her pre-released  track Dolores - “It’s recognising you’re at fault because if you feel like something is not right you should speak up and say it, rather than sit in it hoping that it gets better”. This accountability and partition of blame is a healthy perspective, and recognises that in dating, no one is coming to the table as a blank slate. 

Another stand out track for me was ‘Dolores’ – buttery soft harmonies panned beautifully in my headphones listening to this one. The titular character takes its name from the main character of the dystopian sci-fi show Westworld. Interestingly, in the show, the character learns her life is an elaborate lie, later breaking free from this. The song relates getting into a relationship and gradually seeing more problems come to the surface. Drake’s reference to this character therefore helps to reflect an escape from a  relationship built on lies. 

Drake also uses other characters in stories told across the album; ‘Leroy’ is a character she refers to in two different tracks. Whether drawing influence from pop culture or a character of her own invention, it adds a sense of continuity to her storytelling and  lyricism. Giving the subject of the breakup a name humanizes him, adding to the sense that this is not the kind of breakup where you hate your ex so much, their name alone becomes a kind of curse word / insult / ‘he who shall not be named’ hybrid (shoutout to  my ex <3). 

Tracks like ‘Half Alive’, ‘Alone’, ‘Ripples’ and ‘Afterlife’ lean most into the melancholic and reflective tone seen throughout the album. As a singer-songwriter self accompanying on guitar, it is perhaps difficult to ensure that the songs on the album don’t sound too similar. The album, although well-written, does perhaps fall into this trap at times, exploring very similar themes throughout.

The slightly more up-tempo offerings such as ‘Paper Moons’ and ‘Brockwell’ offer a fuller instrumental backing and a stronger vocal performance, differing from the usual half-sung half-whispered vocals seen on the rest of the album. Drake demonstrates her vocal range and ability to shift her vocal tone well across these two tracks. 

Other songs like ‘Alone’ and ‘Ripples’ adeptly utilise vocal and instrumental echo and reverb to create a dreamlike feel. The at times stream of consciousness style of her writing adds to this raw and vulnerable offering, allowing us into the artist’s dreams themselves.  

In ‘I Don’t Not Love You’, the artist’s favourite track on the album, she speaks longingly of a relationship that didn’t work out. The sense of ambivalence of wanting someone but knowing it’s not right to be with them is a masterclass in yearning that I’m sure many can relate to. The song builds, adding a heavier bassline and flits between use of stronger vocals and the breathy almost spoken-word style employed in the opening. Her voice throughout is laden with emotion; the sadness, frustration, and perhaps even defeat can be heard particularly in the final refrain.

In summary, CHUCK is for those lovers who feel things deeply. Who hyper-analyse and dissect a relationship, perhaps never truly getting over it. In the artist’s own words, “just know if you’re both hurting, it means you’ve learnt a lot. Everyone is lucky to feel the sadness that you’ve got, it’s better to have loved than to have never loved at all.” 

There is no bitterness in her reflection, it is brimming with the love left over from past relationships, lingering in each tender strum of her guitar and soft vocal performance.  Eleni Drake’s latest album is a lesson in grace, vulnerability, self-awareness and reflection that may just be what gets me through my next breakup.