To today’s youth Deacon Phillippe could very well be the Calvin Harris of Gen Z, but he also has the good fortune of inheriting leading man looks from his actor parents Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon.

If you’ve ever been to a party in the Hollywood hills, then at some point of the night someone will start playing EDM tracks – and this EP is reminiscent of that in beats and style, making for easy dance music that you can sway to while clutching a White Claw (props if it’s Black Cherry). However, if you happen to listen to this EP at the end of the night, coming down from the dance high and driving down Sunset Boulevard at 2am, then your experience will be completely different.

A careful focus on the lyrics and you begin to notice a theme of loss and heartbreak that give these songs a deeper meaning. California Reaper is moody and dark the whole way through. A Love Song is likens love to extracting a knife out of someone’s heart, while Breaking Away lulls you into thinking it’s gonna be a ballad but then morphs into the most personally intimate track on the EP – and perfectly describes the numbness of going through the motions but being detached from everything when you’ve experienced too much pain that they only way not to fall apart is to break away.

There’s no doubt that Deacon has talent and the capacity to convey emotions through music, so it’s interesting to see the direction his music will go in the future. In the meantime, I think this EP is best experienced while you’re gilded like Cassie in Euphoria, crying into her mirror as dozens of flowers surround you, or dancing your heartbreak away like you’re Robin in the club knowing that you’ll be dancing on your own.

You can check out the EP on SoundCloud!