Eden Rain’s “Open Season” arrives as a record that has stopped performing the artist she thought she was supposed to be. Raised in Yorkshire on family sing-alongs, Carole King, and homemade mixtapes, Eden has spent the years since a talent show rendition of “You’ve Got A Friend” trying on a finished version of herself, and the first song of her year is the first one where the trying has stopped.
Eden has spoken of overthinking, of trying to fit a niche that already existed, of polishing herself up for rooms that did not need her smooth. Co-written with SOFY and produced by Ed Denholm, “Open Season” keeps the Carole King harmony instincts close, but the song leans into what Eden has called a “frazzled and slightly chaotic” presence. The Yorkshire sing-alongs are still inside her voice; the polish that used to cover them is not.
“Open Season” leaves the singer in the open, no longer arranging herself for whoever is listening. The talent show at thirteen, the piano lessons that came after, the late start to writing: none of it has been smoothed. The harmonies she grew up singing are still there. They just no longer need to be polished to be heard.
