“I know it’ll all be over soon”.
Life, as it were and continues to be, is a never-ending path of simultaneous discovery and recovery. It’s a passage through our desire as humans to ask the inescapable question of; why? Not just to ourselves but to the world around us. A constant urge to find answers to every nook and cranny of our peculiar lives. Why does one flower bloom bright red, yet another breathes a striking yellow? That particularity of life drives us as humans because we seek answers.
Yoshika Colwell, like any of us, is someone who sought after something, answers, an answer even. A wish so potent, that Colwell spent a decade self-hibernating herself away from music, finding herself overcome with a perfectionist nature, which irked its way into thousands of incomplete songs.
But the old saying of “it’s never too late” rings true for Colwell. A debut EP first followed in May of last year entitled “There’s A Time”. And soon enough, there would be a time for that decade long exile to be brought to shore, with her debut LP, “On The Wing”.
On The Wing is an album that feels like a culmination of that decade of internal turmoil, exploring the different thoughts that circled round Colwell’s mind. Opener ‘On & On’ reflects on that passing of time, a line where Colwell confesses that “I thought I would feel different, get confident with age” highlights where her head was at, in a song that explores how despite the world continuing to turn and change, Colwell isn’t certain that she followed along.
But amongst the uncertainty, there is comfort found On The Wing. Lead single ‘In Bloom’, the album’s strongest track is about the concept of “Sunny Nihilism”, the idea that everything may end, but encourages that we find a beauty in that fact, to go out and enjoy life whilst we are still here, the repeated refrain of “What have I got to lose?” perfectly captures this concept in a simple, but beautiful manner.
The album’s sound, pivoting towards a folk singer-songwriter album, feels expected for an artist who found herself in retreat. The strings in the background of ‘Turn My Face Away’ are lovely and serene, and Yoshika Colwell’s voice is soft and tempered, allowing every track on this LP to sit with the listener as we bear witness to a decade’s worth of introspection and self-reflection. Her voice shines best on the honest ‘There’s Got To Be A Loser Babe’ and the reflective ‘Fighting On The Wing’.
On The Wing closes out with ‘Maybe’, a track that doesn’t so much as close out Yoshika Colwell’s journey of introspection, rather leaving that door open. Our journey to discover and our desire to learn is infinite. Yoshika feels as if she’s fully come to terms with that, as she questions if she’ll ever find out answers to her questions, or if she made the right decisions in life. A never-ending conundrum that we certainly have all faced.
On The Wing is an album I thought I heard before, a singer-songwriter coming back from a prolonged period of isolation and returning with an album about self-reflection. Yet there’s a different softness to Colwell’s approach. No journey is ever complete, but Colwell feels like she’s at the beginning of her own unique winding road, not just with this being her debut LP, but also with her own life. Yoshika Colwell found herself in a decade long hibernation from music, yet despite this, her journey in life was always destined to start with the thing she ran away from.
Yoshika Colwell: On The Wing – Out 25 July 2025 (Blue Flowers)
Yoshika Colwell – ‘In Bloom’ (Official Video)
