Background:

Half an Orange are a duo from Ohio, formed of Michael Maloof and Andrew Spellman. According to Michael, they got their name off of a Brazilian expression that means that everyone in the world is one half of an orange, looking for their other perfect half to complete them.

They dropped their debut single, “Downtown”, back in late 2017. They bounced around different labels before releasing their Monstercat debut, “Old Friends”, back in summer 2018. They’ve worked with one of the largest esports stars in the world, Ninja, and have significantly been building up their following in the past 9 months.

Track Breakdown:

This EP is connected by what Half an Orange do best, lyric centric songs that talk about deeply emotional subjects, which plays in it’s favor because it doesn’t just sound like a collection of random singles bundled together for the sake of getting more more money.

The EP begins with their breakout hit “Old Friends” with Blonde Maze. This is a song about nostalgia for simpler times with friends, which is something I think we can all relate to. It’s complemented by mellow drops as well as Blonde Maze’s backing vocals on the choruses.

While still taking on nostalgia, “Left Behind” takes a different approach entirely in terms of song structure. Instead of downtempo drops, we get euphoric, high energy drops courtesy of collaborator InukShuk. It’s definitely different as the inspiration behind the song was about the time Michael snuck out of class to go watch Sublime live but he was never able to make it due to his car breaking down.

The back half on the EP all centralize around a general theme of sadness and introspection, with a glimmer of hope sprinkled in. This is realized the most in “Buzz Lightyear” where Michael Maloof sings of making mistakes that he can’t take back, depression, and wanting to start over again. The poignant lyrics clash with the surprisingly upbeat drops but still manage to weave together really well.

We see this continued in “Given Up” where Michael sings about getting back up after getting beaten down by life, which is illustrated in the chorus with lyrics like: “I know some days we all cry/We break down, yeah, we lose our minds/I know some days we all cry/But let’s trust life”. Out of all the songs on here, this one has resonated with me the most over the last month and a half due to external circumstances

This brings us to the only new track on the EP, “End of the Moon”. “End of the Moon” looks more towards love, acceptance and honesty. It makes it a fitting end to the EP by ending on the lyric “But mostly we grow.” It isn’t as sad as “Buzz Lightyear” nor is it as cheerful as “Left Behind”, but it is sad with a glimmer of hope for the future, which is what I think we all are at the end of the day.

Final Thoughts:

Mostly We Grow Pt. 1 is an overall solid EP. It has great lyricism, good instrumentation, and it’s overall cohesive. My main gripe with this EP is that we’ve heard 4 out of 5 of the tracks on the EP before it even came out, the first single came out 9 months prior. It overall feels like an excuse to get an EP out in the world and “End of the Moon” was used justify it.

That said, this is only one of two parts and according to Michael Maloof, Part 2 will be all new songs when it’s dropped either in the summer or fall of 2019. This EP is a sure sign of Half an Orange cementing themselves in the electronic music industry and I am excited to see where they will go from here. If you’ve never heard of Half an Orange before now, this is a great place to start as it embraces as a whole what Half an Orange is about. I highly recommend to listen to this!

Final Rating:

9/10

Connect with Half an Orange:

Listen to Mostly We Grow Pt. 1 on all platforms March 15th, 2019: