Title track ‘SUN FROM BOTH SIDES’ keeps climbing. Alex Apolline holds her vocal clear and defined through its epic opening, even as the song grows around her. By the time it reaches its full scale, the effect is genuinely awe-inspiring. You hear the size of her ambition, but you also hear every word.
The opening gives Alex’s second EP, THE SUN FROM BOTH SIDES, its brightest moment. She sings about a life she once watched through glass, afraid to ask for more. Then the chorus opens up alongside her resolve. Its size feels earned because the verse has shown how long she has held herself back.
Her debut EP, Tales of An Eldest Daughter, explored heartbreak and a fractured relationship with herself. Here, Alex asks what follows when she allows herself pleasure, intimacy and possibility. The title draws on psychiatrist David Viscott’s description of loving and being loved as feeling the sun from both sides. Across this alt-pop EP, Alex wants the warmth, though she knows wanting leaves her exposed.
‘SHIVER’ begins somewhere gentler. Its ethereal opening leaves room for another gorgeous vocal, while the lyrics follow a summer romance from a balcony to a restaurant in Lloret de Mar. Alex fills the scene with small, affectionate details, including hands held beneath the table. Even in the heat, the title’s physical reaction gives the song its hook. Desire here feels playful and immediate.
‘RADICAL CASUAL ROMANCE’ has a sharper sense of humour. A date falls through when its narrator has already reached the station, so she finds another prospect before the evening ends. Yet the pre-chorus admits she has spent too long pursuing people who never return her interest. The chorus sounds like a decision to enjoy herself, though the earlier confession keeps it from feeling entirely carefree.
Secrecy changes the mood of ‘DESIRE’. A hand rests on the narrator’s neck at dinner, close enough for her to notice while everyone else misses it. Later, their fingers meet in a taxi. Those details give the relationship a charge, but the chorus refuses an easy romantic payoff. She wants closeness in public, and what happens in private leaves her wanting more.
‘HIT ME WHERE IT HURTS’ makes an unexpected sighting feel almost violent. Traffic slows, a siren sounds and the narrator struggles to get away from the image of someone she once knew. Then the chorus addresses them directly, its repeated demand caught between longing and anger. The song gives desire a less comfortable shape: she still feels its pull after the encounter has hurt her.
In ‘HOLE IN MY HEART’, the hurt reaches further back. The chorus addresses someone who never noticed the scar they left, and its repeated “you don’t know” sounds weary rather than triumphant. Placed beside the title track, it gives Alex’s desire for a fuller life more weight. She wants to move towards something good without pretending an old wound has disappeared.
THE SUN FROM BOTH SIDES review
Hands meet beneath a restaurant table in ‘SHIVER’, while a touch at dinner in ‘DESIRE’ has to go unnoticed. Meanwhile, the cancelled date in ‘RADICAL CASUAL ROMANCE’ gives its carefree chorus a history. The writing feels strongest when Alex trusts such details to carry a complicated feeling. Each scene lets you sense the difference between enjoying closeness and fearing its limits.
The title track remains the EP’s biggest musical rush. Its opening build meets a vocal with enough definition to hold its place as everything grows. The later songs give the moment its depth: wanting more brings pleasure, risk and memories she still carries. Even so, the moment I want to return to is her voice rising through ‘SUN FROM BOTH SIDES’, clear all the way up, and thrilling when the song finally meets it.
Listen to THE SUN FROM BOTH SIDES. A vinyl edition of the EP is available exclusively via the THE SUN FROM BOTH SIDES tour. This release includes two extra tracks.
Photo credit: Nat Traxel
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