We Speak Music
Stephan Folkes’ Debut Album ‘Hazard’ Is Ethereal, Empowering, and Future-Facing
Stephan Folkes enters the musical space with Hazard, an expansive, genre-fluid debut that feels like a personal diary stretched across the stars. It’s cinematic, sonic poetry — at times spacey and introspective, at others grounded in pain and grit. The Leytonstone artist makes clear: this isn’t just an album, it’s an experience.
From the first shimmering notes of What Should You Do (For Your Whole Life)?, Folkes invites us into a world that oscillates between dreamy exploration and radical self-accountability. The production is lush, echoing influences like Prince and Billie Eilish, but never derivative — Folkes crafts something wholly his own, futuristic yet familiar.
What’s particularly captivating is how each song serves as a lesson in resilience. Is This Paradise? hits like a journal entry after loss, while Say It Like You Mean It is the confident rebirth that follows — rhythmic, swaggering, unashamed. Folkes shows range not just in sound, but in emotional terrain, mapping love, grief, doubt, and transformation with care.
His lived experience informs every note. Whether it’s surviving near-death as a child or navigating a world not built for neurodivergent minds, his voice carries both a weight and a clarity. Hazard, especially in its closer moments, offers more than music — it offers perspective.
A debut this refined and audacious doesn’t just introduce an artist; it signals the start of a movement. Stephan Folkes is forging new paths for expression — and Hazard is his first masterpiece.
We Speak Music
Megan Burke Turns Personal Experience into Pop Catharsis on ‘Not All Men, Apparently’
Megan Burke’s debut EP Not All Men, Apparently arrives with a title designed to provoke conversation, but beneath its pointed framing lies a deeply personal collection of songs rooted in lived experience. The project sees the Irish artist tackling themes of heartbreak, deception and emotional recovery with an unfiltered honesty that has become increasingly rare within contemporary pop.
Produced by Hungarian hitmaker Áron Somody, the EP documents Burke’s journey through a series of difficult relationships, transforming private frustrations into universally relatable songwriting. Rather than presenting neat resolutions, the songs lean into complexity, examining the lingering impact of toxic dynamics while charting a gradual path towards self-awareness. It is this willingness to confront uncomfortable truths that gives the record its emotional weight.
Among the collection’s standout moments is Make Me, the focus track that introduces a welcome sense of levity. Written as a break from the darker material surrounding it, the song captures a more playful side of Burke’s personality, embracing independence and spontaneity without abandoning the candid perspective that defines the wider project. Its inclusion adds balance to a release that might otherwise feel relentlessly introspective.
Burke’s rise has been built largely on her ability to connect directly with audiences, amassing a substantial online following while earning notable milestones including a No.1 iTunes chart position and performances at some of Ireland’s biggest venues. With Not All Men, Apparently, she delivers her most cohesive artistic statement yet, confirming her status as a compelling new voice in Irish pop and a songwriter unafraid to tell difficult stories.
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