Elliot James Reay is one of those new musical stars that emerged on social networks who have taken the leap to sign with a multinational record label, in his case Interscope. His proposal is inspired by the teen-pop and rock’ n roll of the 50s, as can be seen simply by looking at his toupee. At 22 years old, the Manchester singer is an admirer of Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. In fact, Reay has achieved great popularity on TikTok – where he has close to 4 million followers – covering these artists.
Reay’s next step has been to release his own material, and the young crooner can boast of having signed a debut single of moderate success: the doo-wop of ‘I Think They Call This Love’ exceeds 53 million views on Spotify.
Reay has continued to fall in love with his second and, for now, final single, ‘Boy in Love’, the Song of the Day for the last Monday of 2024.
The soft and friendly rock ‘n roll of ‘Boy in Love’ is absolutely faithful to the style that dominated the airwaves – to use a nostalgic expression – in Elliot James Reay’s favorite era, forming a nice – and simple – love song that The same thing could have come out in the time of Ritchie Valens as in that of Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Duffy or Stephen Sanchez.
The lyrics of ‘Boy in Love’ dare to include the expression “mercy, please”, rhymed with “I’m crawlin’ to her on my knees”. In other words, James likes a woman and his legs give out just thinking about her. The expression of desire in ‘Boy in Love’ is also nostalgic and prudish and, for example, in the lyrics, Reay compares his “wounded heart” to the appearance of a “peach” in bad condition, and uses expressions that already sounded stale decades ago, like “she makes me feel like a boy”, “she walks like a woman” or “I need her like a harmony”. The prize goes to the quote from an oldie singer: “But now when Sam Cooke sings, she got me whistlin’ along.”
