Sleeping Bela: Insatiable EP Review

On her melancholic third EP, “Insatiable,” Sleeping Bela wistfully takes the lovelorn crowd on a quest for their lost love with her visceral songwriting. Her lyricism, accompanied by the wanderlust-esque backdrop, echoes the desperate cry for love harbored by the wounded hearts today.

The juxtaposition of the freeing ambient synth pads in the instrumentals and the passionate entreaty in her lyrics on “Insatiable” reflects Sleeping Bela’s reality of her songwriting process during isolation. In the comfort of her bedroom, she unlocked these overflowing emotions in this EP through moments of introspection and stillness. “I don’t like writing in front of people until I access that vulnerable space within me,” she said.

The feeling of nostalgia in the first track, “Baby Teeth,” creates a hazy, dream-like flashback about the early stages of a relationship. The floaty and light production carries us through her remembrance of the love that has now drifted apart. “I miss the sound of sweetness/The innocence through baby teeth,” mourning a lost love usually begins with a constant reminiscence of the happiest and most affectionate moments. With these words, she has driven us down the spiral into our own deepest feelings. This track reminds me of Gracie Abrams, one of her musical inspirations, and her song “21.” Similar to the harmonic hook in “21,” “Baby Teeth” has the melodic movement of the repeated pad notes on top of the bass chords, providing continuity and depth that pushes the music forward. “Tell me ‘I’m still around’ when you go/Tell me ‘I’m here’ whenever you go,” a part of her is still reluctant to depart from the other person, yearning for reassurance with a sense of desperation. As the song progresses, we’re wandering further down the memory lane she has created for us.

The immersive, grandiose instrumental build-up in “All You Want” engenders an intense desire and possessiveness. In her lyrics, Sleeping Bela battles to sever the ties between the person and herself, “Don’t you hear me now/I’m heading out/I’m on my own.” While she claims to be independent, the following lines contradict: “Tell me I am what you want to hold but can’t be.” She demonstrates the seemingly never-ending healing process of going back and forth in a breakup and how the self-reliant image we try to prove to the other person belies the fear of being unwanted.

Waiting for a response that will never be answered, Sleeping Bela repeats the same questions in the chorus of “Honeymoon:” “Will we still/Will we still love again?” Such lyricism reminds me of another one of her lyrical inspirations, Lana Del Rey, and her song “Young and Beautiful.” Analogous to how Lana attempted to use repetition in the chorus of “Young and Beautiful” (“Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?”) to convince herself that what she’s chanting is the truth (by repeating “I know you will/I know you wiill/I know that you will”), Sleeping Bela also wishes to know the answer to the question; however, she left this question open-ended, instead of talking herself into thinking that the other person will reciprocate her love.

Similar to using the rhetorical question style in “Honeymoon,” Sleeping Bela employs the same idea in the “Insatiable” track, asking the most pressing and earnest questions. She depicts the loss of direction and self in a relationship by asking questions such as “Where do I go when it all feels insatiable?/And where do we go?” and “Will you see me for what I am?” These self-doubts disclose the darkest insecurities one can derive from a relationship. Not only does she admit the insatiable need for reassurance, but her honesty and vulnerability in songwriting also substantiate Sleeping Bela as a relatable, astonishing songwriter.

The “Insatiable” EP exemplifies Sleeping Bela’s artistry in creating tension between her flowing, airy ambiance in music and her delicate, all-encompassing lyricism. We may find ourselves drifting in the sea of emotions while listening to her music, trying to figure out the nebulous concepts of being in and out of a relationship –self-doubts, reminiscence, and insecurities –altogether. While Sleeping Bela gravitates her music towards relationships, she does hope to embark on her self-realizing journeys in music. “I do want to gravitate towards writing in a different style, where it’s not always a story about two people, said Sleeping Bela. “It could be a story about me.”