Ella Vos is gearing up to release her sophomore album Turbulence this summer, and we’ve already heard the first two singles. The record appears to be another intimate look at the songwriter, following her 2017 debut, which focused on the postpartum depression she underwent after the birth of her son, and a 2019 EP exploring a cancer diagnosis she received in the interim.
On “Mistakes, they catch up,” written in collaboration with John Carroll Kirby, Vos considers the damaging behavior she—and most of us—unwittingly performs upon herself. “This song is about recognizing my tendency to self-sabotage and how I make things harder than they need to be,” she explains. “This song is me standing on the top of an ash covered hillside, ready to start anew.”
In contrast with this grey imagery, “Mistakes” is a bright keyboard ballad further illuminated in the song’s bright-orange and -purple lit music video. “I think of that ash on the hillside often, as I’ve witnessed many wildfires growing up in California. The ash is a reminder of the power of nature, the mistakes we’ve made as humans, and the ability to transform and make something good after destruction. To me, it reflects the painful, yet necessary process of learning from our past in order to change our future.”
Stream the track below, and hear Turbulence in full July 17.
