BELLES - Happy Hour- East Music Row Records

Though it’s been the more tongue and cheek songs such as “He Gave Me A Ring,” “I Hate Trucks,” and “What In The Truck” that have paved the path for the budding career of country starlet Belles, her most current chapter has been solidly built on her growth as both a songwriter and performer, tugging heartstrings through pure vulnerability as she crafts connection with the listener.

Where her last release, “Porcelain,” had showcased the fragileness in allowing her frayed and broken heart to fall in love again, her latest single digs into the heartache that comes with growing apart one fractured strand at a time.

“Happy Hour” is available now on all streaming and digital platforms.

Written by Kelli Belles and Johnny Gates, the retro flow of the melodic waltz adds an aura of sadness that expertly matches the poetically crafted lyrics which take the familiarity of “happy hour” and turns it on its side, bringing yearning and heartache together into a swirl of emotional gut punches that literally leave the listener feeling her heart breaking with each next line.

Within’ the predictable happy hour scene, one that’s littered with bachelorettes and wannabe cowboys, the overjoyed atmosphere juxtaposes perfect contrast to the distance growing further between her and him and she pines for one more like it used to be as they sit on the barstool’s edge of breaking up.

Painting the unraveling brokenness that’s steadily growing between them, she laments that try as she might to reignite their spark, their distance is noticeably starting to show (“I know you’re here but you’re not”) and their hearts are quickly losing the fight to hold on…mourning in the chorus:

“Oh what I’d give for one happy hour

One where your kiss is sweet and not sour

Just sixty minutes of you lookin’ at me like it’s love

I’m sick of acting like I’m this tough

Oh what I’d give for one happy hour”

Extracting pure emotions within the ebbs and flows of her vocal range as only a veteran performer can, Belles conveys the power of the struggled message - even (and especially) when using the softness in her tonality - injecting raw feelings into each lyrical turn while continuing to poetically open the pages of her intriguing new chapter.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)