Michal Leah (pronounced Me-Hall), pop singer-songwriter and TikTok star, released her second EP, “Part Two,” on Nov. 17, 2023. Most musicians progressively improve their music throughout their careers. However, for Leah, it is evident that she started her career off incredibly strong at just 19, with her first three hit singles: “For Me” (Feb. 19, 2021), “Bitter” (March 19, 2021) and “Delusion” (April 21, 2021).
Earlier this year, Leah released her first EP, “Part One,” which has themes of love, loss and maturity. Leah reflects with Wonderland Magazine on “Part One,” revealing that she “wanted to capture [her] emotions at that exact moment — from heartbreak to growing pains, to being madly in love.” And she certainly does, especially with her hit song, “The Way I Love You,” which entails finding your one true soulmate, failing to debunk the myth that every human being has only one other person they are perfect for.
Again, in 2023, she gave her audience a short yet edge-of-the-seat worthy wait, up until the release of “Part Two,” her second EP of the year and of her career.
Tracklist opener and my personal favorite, “What Are We Doing?” addresses the difficulties of chosen vulnerability, especially in the desire of wanting to succumb to a certain negativity. In Leah’s case, it’s the infatuation with another person — regardless of how destructive temporary romance could get.
She boldly startes the song by taking on a slight Amy Winehouse style. Leah takes on the undertones of the song’s sass and asserts herself dominantly by singing:
“I know your friends say I’m the worst / Well all of mine hate you, too / They say I’m more than you deserve / I mean that’s probably true”
Spitting back retributive lines like “all of mine hate you, too,” reveals the defensive and argumentative nature of humankind. But who can you blame? What else could you do when someone insults you like that? However, her next phrase seems a bit more taken back, sort of doubting herself as she says, “I mean that’s probably true,” the “probably” being unsure of her self-worth, which is a common thread of romantic manipulation.
And, of course, all this bickering leads to an intense, quick-burning obsession with the physicality of desire. She sings, “nine times out of ten / I’d be scheming ways of leaving / But this time I’m falling in,” which insinuates the unhealthiness between her and another person. However, she pushes back against the detrimental desire of another’s company, regardless of the cost.
“Up in smoke and up in flames / Burning clothes and screaming names / But for now it feels amazing”
Moving down the tracklist, the second song, “Think I’m Gonna Love You,” takes a completely different turn. In this special song — which is duetted with her soon-to-be husband, Caleb Hearn (also a pop singer-songwriter) — she sings more about the pure innocence in true love, and the timeless feeling of being in a relationship that fulfills your every need.
Although this song is incredibly idyllic of the passionate dream of love, her deeper voice does not necessarily match or pair up perfectly well with Hearn’s nasally tone. Also, the song takes on a pretty predictable rhythmic pattern and does not venture out of a comfortable range, which frankly makes the song a bit boring.
Next up is a surprising cover of none other than Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s “Something Stupid,” famously covered by Michael Bublé and Reese Witherspoon. Unlike the Sinatras’ song and Bublé and Witherspoon’s cover, Leah’s cover is a much softer version of “Something Stupid,” which illustrates the heart’s initial attachment to another person whose feelings are equally attached.
Another notable difference between Leah’s cover and the original song is the exclusion of the orchestral part, which added an extra layer of romance. Leah’s cover is fully acoustic, which is sung with just a guitar alone. However, this doesn’t take away from her cover at all and, more so, strips the song of the cliché and forced nature of the romantic orchestra. Additionally, the lone guitar and her angelic voice only add onto the genuineness of speaking from the heart, especially when singing lines like:
“I practice every day / To find some clever lines to say / To make the meaning come true” and “The time is right, your perfume fills my head / The stars get read, and, oh, the night’s so blue / And then I go and spoil it all / By saying somethin’ stupid like, ‘I love you’”
The fourth song, “Let Me Have It All,” is probably — musically at least — the most powerful song on the EP. According to Nettwerk, the record label to which Leah is signed, Leah “wrote it from a personal experience. [She] was trying so hard to be there for someone who was holding onto a lot of baggage from their past, and [she] wrote this song as a reminder to them during that time that [she’ll] always be there to help them through anything.”
With the song’s meaning in conjunction with its simple yet sophisticated instrumentals and Leah’s echoic vocals, she exactly personifies the concept of empathy in its truest form.
The fifth and last song on “Part Two” is called “Burn,” which is about giving your all to someone who won’t reciprocate even a fraction of the feelings you’ve gifted them. This non-reciprocity might make you feel like you’ll never amount to anything to them and that even with all the effort you’ve put in, you’ll never be enough.
Although this isn’t a favorite amongst fans, take a seat, close your eyes, and prepare yourself to enter a new, ethereal realm. Her backing and main vocals, in absence of other instruments, truly amplify her raw emotions — feelings that are often silenced or shut away.
Even though she is only 19 years old with a brief music career, she has already amassed 800,000 followers on TikTok and 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Taking inspiration from her own experiences, her songs are incredibly meaningful as they relate to the experiences of so many other people in the world. With the unique titles of her extended plays, “part one” and “part two,” we are only left to wonder, “is there a ‘Part Three,’ or will there be an album?”
Rating: 4/5