Ep review: 9th Life by Riese

 Riese’s "9th Life" EP is a concise and intensely honest collection focused on emotional resilience and the burden of survivorship. Moving beyond the mythical idea of instant rebirth, the five-track EP explores the exhaustion of having to constantly rebuild oneself after difficult experiences. Riese immediately establishes herself as a narrator who is vulnerable yet firmly protective of her own story, setting boundaries in the opening track "Id rather be boring" by demanding, "Just don’t mistake me / For all my trauma." This sets the EP’s core theme: the struggle to be seen as more than just a survival story, resulting in a work that is sharp, accessible, and deeply relatable in its specific anxieties.

​The EP’s journey is structured around confronting different phases of crisis. The title track, "9th life," captures the urgency and anxiety of feeling time slip away, using vivid imagery like "I can count the minutes coming down like it’s a landslide." This high-stakes pressure leads into the heavy weight of survivorship in "Couldve been me," where Riese grapples with the unfairness of being the one who remains, concluding with the heartbreaking realization, "It could’ve been me." The momentum shifts toward inner strength in "Sleep off the sadness," which wisely rejects quick fixes and offers mature, inverted advice: "Gotta feel it to fix it," underscoring the necessity of true emotional processing.

​The EP closes powerfully with "Aftermath," which avoids a triumphant finale and instead describes the paralyzing loop of mental exhaustion—"Should I stay in bed again? / Or get up just to get knocked down?" This ending suggests that the "9th Life" is not a destination, but a continuous cycle of effort and consequence. Riese’s lyrical maturity and thematic consistency are the EP’s greatest strengths, using straightforward language to articulate complex emotional states like anxiety and guilt. "9th Life" is a resonant, important listen that firmly establishes Riese as an insightful voice for navigating the complicated reality of emotional recovery.




Stream 9th Life here!

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