*If you haven’t already make sure to read a previous arts and entertainment review of mine (“Three songs, three people, three different stories”) that is based upon one of the songs out of this EP that was released early. Also, it will provide some background information of Joshua Bassett’s current situation and song writing inspiration!

In late 2020, Joshua Bassett was best known to the public as the new Troy Bolton in the “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” that was made as a Disney + original; however, earlier that year he did release a few singles (“Common Sense” and “Anyone Else”) to put his music out into the open to see how fans would respond. As a fan myself, I can personally say his music is a hit! At just 20 years old he has been able to write songs about relatable situations while easily portraying any message by using his real feelings and emotions. With this in mind, his self-titled EP, with a total of six songs, has been more than I could have asked for.

About a month ago, he decided to release the EP fully while slowly recording live piano, guitar, and acoustic versions of some of the most popular songs from the list. The songs are as follows: “Sorry,” “Do It All Again,” “Lie Lie Lie,” “Only a Matter of Time,” “Telling Myself,” and “Heaven is You.” All of these songs together have the perfect mix of a fast tempo and clear message, while others are slower and more sentimental. Based on my previous article involving Olivia Rodrigo, some may assume that “Sorry,” “Telling Myself,” and “Lie Lie Lie” are more of post-breakup revenge songs with lyrics such as, “you’ll be sorry that you left me/did we just want to believe that this was love?” However, “Only a Matter of Time” and “Heaven is You” change the mood as he says, “Well darling I’ll be fine, it’s only a matter of time/I always heard there was a heaven/I never knew if it was true/but darling ever since I met you I know that heaven is you.”

Overall, Joshua Bassett is a perfect example of a young, talented, and unique artist who is on his way to fame. Some of my favorite things about his performances are his incredible piano skills and expression of his voice when singing in his lower register. However, when he expands on notes or does long “runs” it can create a weird break in the song that personally sounds weird to me sometimes, (but it is a stylistic choice that works for him that I fully support). With this, Bassett’s self-titled EP has a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my music library.

*This album has several explicit songs that would be rated PG-13 due to minor amounts of foul language and references.