Chanelsd’s Life Affirming is filled with self reflection and deeper meanings.

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TOP 5 SONGS

5. Infinite

“Infinite” is all about trying to find peace and resolution within yourself rather than in the outside world. Everything you need is within yourself, and you have the ability to do anything and be anyone.

“Infinite” is very affirming and optimistic, and I’m here for it. The message is straightforward but meaningful, encouraging you to look inward instead of constantly searching for something external to make you feel whole.

4. Before I heard the trumpets

“Before I Heard the Trumpets” gave me a different vibe than the rest of the album. It felt more vulnerable, stripped back, and less in your face. The track has soft, simple beats, pretty guitar, and heartfelt lyrics.

It’s about wanting to be by someone’s side, having a desire to stay, and being willing to go through the motions with them. This was one of the moments where I felt like the production gave the lyrics more room to breathe, and I really enjoyed that.

3. We All Gon Shine

“We All Gon Shine” is the longest track on the album, but it also gives us the most insight into Chanelsd’s world. We’re talking hard work, money, friendships, and struggle. The desire to grow and make it is evident here, along with the need to be successful and the pressure you put on yourself to get there.

The track is a bit flirty, but the message is evident: we gonna get there, we gonna make it, we gonna shine. There’s an optimism here that I appreciate, especially because it feels rooted in the realities of working toward something rather than simply pretending everything is easy.

2. Message to Self

This bonus track is what I want to hear more of. It’s playful, raw, and unfiltered, but that’s what I like about it. I can picture myself in a room with a close friend, messing around with chords on the piano until I find one that just clicks, that feels like magic.

This track showed me passion and community and reminded me of the pure joy and pride that comes with songwriting. It’s simple, but impactful, and there’s something really refreshing about how naturally it comes across.

1. Quick Reflection

“Quick Reflection” was my favorite track because it stands out from the others. There isn’t any actual singing in this track. It is more production and speaking, and I feel like, although it’s short, the lyrics get really deep. This is a track that talks about fate and where we stand in the universe. It’s giving “I’m zooted and contemplating the whole world” vibes, and honestly, I’m here for it.

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SONG BY SONG RATING

follow your bliss (3/5)
I AM grateful I exist (3/5)
my bliss soldiers (n/a)
before I heard the trumpets (3.5/5)
and the trumpets go (3/5)
infinite (3.5/5)
modern hippie (2.5/5)
quick reflection (4/5)
blissed out (3/5)
we all gon shine (3.5/5)
message to self (bonus) (3.5/5)

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RGM RATING

For Life Affirming, I want to take off my “RGM writer” cap for a second and put on my “music production student” cap instead.

Life Affirming has the potential to be a very unique album. There are some genuinely interesting ideas here, particularly in the way Chanelsd approaches spirituality, self-discovery, and the bigger questions surrounding existence. However, I can’t quite get past the production. At times, things feel a little uneven sonically, and because of that, it can be difficult to focus on the message of the track.

I think a lot of times the production overshadows the lyricism and the vocalist. There are moments where it feels like you’re hearing one sound very loudly in one ear and barely hearing it at all in the other, and it makes it difficult to concentrate on everything happening at once. It feels like things are separated, and while some of that may be intentional for effect, it occasionally feels like it goes a little too far.

It’s like if you took a PB&J and said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we used this as a bun for a fully loaded glizzy?” And instead of it all meshing together, you’re just getting notes of mustard, jelly, ketchup, and peanut butter individually. There are all these interesting ingredients, but sometimes they don’t quite come together into one cohesive bite.

That being said, there is a quality to this album that I really like, and that is the originality. Life Affirming is very metaphorical and touches on life from a more thoughtful, spiritual level. I really like the comparisons between everyday life and higher being. There is clearly an intention behind the project, and I admire that.

At the same time, I feel like we are only scratching the surface of some of these ideas. There are moments where I found myself thinking, “Okay, this is interesting. Now take me deeper.” I think there is a lot of room for Chanelsd to explore these themes further as the sound develops.

I also like the distinction between the tracks, the use of different sounds and different vibes, and the guitars throughout the album. The strings are really good. Life Affirming has a psychedelic feel with hip-hop qualities and even some electronic vibes thrown in, keeping you on your toes.

Overall, I think this has the potential to become its own niche. While Life Affirming wasn’t my favorite album, it definitely wasn’t my least favorite either. I think there is a genuinely interesting artistic identity here, and with a little fine-tuning production-wise, I could really see this sound going somewhere.

I’d encourage Chanelsd to keep experimenting and keep dropping new things. I’m interested to see how the sound evolves over time. There are ideas here that I genuinely enjoyed, and even where the execution didn’t quite work for me, I can respect the motive, the originality, and especially the message behind it.

Sometimes an album doesn’t completely hit for you, but you can still see the vision. With Life Affirming, I definitely see the vision. Now I just want to see what happens when all those ingredients start blending together a little more.

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