Carol Ades Masters A Perfect Coming-Of-Age Soundtrack With Debut Album ‘Late Start’
Photo via Carol Ades
“How do you know when you’re ready? / When does the happy outweigh all the scary?” Carol Ades implores in “Hope Is a Scary Thing,” the fourth track on her highly-anticipated debut album Late Start. Reflecting on a large portion of her adolescence, the indie-pop artist takes on the big sister title in this record – a dependable figure of forgiveness, confidence, confrontation, naivety, and everything in between. She writes amidst the thick of various tumultuous seasons in her life, and we see her relentlessly pleading for answers that ultimately rely on the hope and timing of it all. Despite its grievances, the LA-based singer-songwriter uncovers glistening truths about growing up within the album's 14 tracks, drawing her listeners into tender solace.
There’s an endearing, whimsical charm that seems to mystify everything Ades touches. She is an acclaimed collaborator with an impressive catalog, credited on songs for artists like Demi Lovato, Gracie Abrams, and Selena Gomez to name a few. In 2021, her debut single “I Can’t Wait to Be British” paved a new path for Ades’ career.
Emerging from a songwriting background, her diaristic form of storytelling bleeds with authenticity, grasping the thoughts and feelings we hesitate to share but long for others to understand. Her discography is sprinkled with the dynamics of hyper-pop swirls and stripped-back ballads, paired with cover art that is often adorned with collages and playful color palettes. Naturally, her social media feed mirrors this childlike spirit– like the memory box you have tucked underneath the bedside table, filled to the brim with ripped-out journal entries, polaroid pictures, late-night water-colored portraits, and birthday cards your middle school ex-boyfriend wrote for you. Except in this case, Ades is the best friend that lays all of her memorabilia out for you to pick up and read. She’s even dedicated a whole Instagram page for her personal essays and art projects under the name Forgotten Fairy.
Earlier this year, Ades embarked on Holly Humberstone’s US leg as the opening act, where she took a few unreleased songs from the album to the stage. Her attire created a lasting impression on the audience– a black and white schoolgirl outfit that would later appear on the new record’s cover and become Ades’ signature look.
Self-actualization is an ongoing stage of life, but Ades is learning to be gentle towards herself in this season. She earnestly considers every nuance in her coming-of-age journey and doesn’t hesitate to close in on its teeth marks too, no matter how harrowing. We’ve seen her teetering between childhood and adulthood in her previously released tracks –“I’m not a grown-up / But I’m not a kid” she sings in her 2022 single “26” and “I’m just a baby / Still a baby trying to figure it out” in her song “Free” released last summer. Fast forward to a few years later, she seems to be coming to terms with getting older – but it’s not that simple.
The opening lines of “I’m Having Fun” serve as a sobering realization of the end of girlhood– “Went to bed a little girl / And woke up a grown ass woman” Ades hums over gentle guitar pluckings. Although she tries to convince herself to give into the joys of being an adult, she refrains from singing “I’m screaming in the air at the top of my lungs / I’m having fun” with full conviction. It’s not until the album title’s namesake “Late Start” that she fully presses into the beauty of the now, letting go of the timelines we often bound, and therefore limit, ourselves to– “Shotgun, drinking our capri suns / Kissing your big love / Thinking when I get older / This is what I’ll remember.”
“Save the Sad Part for Later” is an intimate confessional that feels like it's being sung on the other side of a bathroom door. Both Ades and LonelyTwins’ voices echo against the walls over the melancholy strums of an acoustic, sneaking in whispers that swell with gut-wrenching desires: “Every time you talk / I want to keep the sound for me” and “I’m afraid that when she gets home / She’ll remember to forgive me / But she won’t.” “Crying is My Superpower” is a cinematic ballad that holds the same lamenting air, but leads with a sweeping piano.“Cause sadness is the longest shower / I was lost but now I found her” Ades belts into the void, as if sending out a hopeful message to combat the doubts of her future self.
Photo via Carol Ades
Written with Mick Coogan and Sean Meier five years ago, the sixth-track “Never Fucking Fall in Love Again” was a surprise single before the final album release. Ades channels her early 20s anger in this cathartic number, where heartbreak feels like the final say. “I wrote this song 5 years ago when I was deep in throws of heartbreak after an abusive relationship,” she writes in an Instagram post. “A part of me has begged myself [to] forget about that time in my life entirely but this song has served as such an important reminder that life can prove you wrong time and time again…”
She attempts to re-ground herself in the sheen instrumentals of “Furniture,” where the people in her life begin to take notice of her detrimental patterns– “Caroline, have you been sleeping?” they poke at her with concern. While Ades is present in the song, her inner voice is the narrator fighting to keep her in her body. “Am I going crazy / Cause I don’t know what I’m doing” she questions before snapping herself into consciousness–“I don’t know how it ends / So I’ll just rearrange the furniture again.”
“Dreams” captures the feeling of rolling down a grassy hill on a summer evening with your girlfriends, coming to a stop at the bottom to gaze up at the dusted sky. Ades has masterfully infused the feelings you get after watching films like The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Frances Ha into her lyrics.“How do you look like that? / I haven’t said that to you lately” could easily be slipped into a scene of Booksmart. Its sister track “Dreams (Reprise)” throws its listeners in for a loop– or rather into the eye of a hazy trance, a blurred memory of the previous night. “Did a lot of good drugs last night / Said a lot of words I don’t know” she spills onto the slow-tempo, an air of cascading harmonies following suit.
It’s abundantly clear Ades wholeheartedly values the people who care to listen to what she has to say. She validates all of the big feelings and magnifies all of the small victories, making sure to gift you with a hand-painted card and fairy-pink cake just for turning another year older while she’s at it. The best part is only around the corner after all!
Listen to Late Start, which is now streaming on all platforms. Catch Ades on her headline tour, which you can buy tickets for here.
