Full Hearts and Empty Rooms

Brisbane, Australia’s Emma Louise started writing music in her teen years, landing her two Q Song Awards when she was only 16. Her 2012 EP, *Full Hearts & Empty Rooms*, opens strong with “Bugs”, a beautiful blend of folk and adult alternative sounds that resonate with rich tones from an electric guitar strummed over brushed snare-drum rhythms. The standout song “Jungle” is a glowing, pulsing, haunting, electro-indie tune that became one of Australia’s biggest hits of 2011 after appearing in an episode of *Grey’s Anatomy*. Louise coos an alluring melody in “Al’s Song”, a beautifully sung serenade to a longhaired masculine muse. Exercising equal parts negative space and pedaling rhythms, this one leaves plenty of room for Louise’s soothing vocal textures to stand out and sprawl over a sparkling six-string ambience. She closes with “1000 Sundowns,” an aspiring-rockstar-boy-meets-aspiring-rockstar-girl ballad stripped down to electric guitar fingerpicking, sublime bass notes, and Louise’s captivating inflections. She gives glimmers of hope with a bittersweet narrative of two ships passing in one short life.

The debut EP from emma louise - Full Hearts & Empty Rooms - is out now through MGM (Australia).