At the end of April, American singer-songwriter Julia Michaels released new music on her album Not In Chronological Order. Her name may not be very familiar to the general public, but her work has undoubtedly crossed your path. She writes, among other things, for and with other artists such as Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Shawn Mendes, Nick Jonas, P!nk, and Britney Spears. Now, Michaels has taken matters into her own hands and released her own album.
After her worldwide solo breakthrough in 2017 with the song Issues, Julia Michaels has sporadically released her own music. In 2019, two EPs were released, Inner Monologue Part I and Part II. However, with Not In Chronological Order, Michaels takes a different path. The relatively pessimistic and depressive lyrics Michaels wrote earlier are now replaced by a more cheerful and love-struck tone. Julia Michaels is in a good place, and you can hear it.
True songwriter
She may not have the best voice (which is, however, very recognizable), but lyrically she is one of the best of her generation. In the opening track All Your Exes, she sings the bold lyrics “I wanna live in a world where all your exes are dead“. A jealous look at the relationship history of her current boyfriend. One of the most cheerful songs is, ironically, Pessimist. Here she sings that her boyfriend has managed to turn her from a pessimist into something else.
Almost the entire album is, therefore, a sung love letter to her current boyfriend, songwriter JP Saxe. With him, she also wrote the Grammy-nominated song If The World Was Ending. On this album, she collaborated with him on the track Little Did I Know.
Not In Chronological Order is easy-listening pop
Not In Chronological Order is a true pop album that is easy to listen to. The acoustic sounds of guitar and piano are interspersed with more digitally produced pop songs with a light beat. Songs like Undertone can be better categorized as electric dance-pop. But this also fits perfectly with Julia Michaels and her voice. She is no stranger to this genre due to previous collaborations with Kygo, Carry Me, and Clean Bandit, I Miss You.
That Julia Michaels doesn’t release solo music more often is a loss. This beautiful and personal album is delightful to listen to. One downside: there are only 10 songs on the album, and it can be listened to in half an hour. The release of more solo work may take a while, but her collaborations will likely not be long in coming. In June, her boyfriend JP Saxe will release his debut album, and Michaels undoubtedly contributed to it. In any case, for every pop music fan, Not In Chronological Order is now available to listen to.
