u/nathanr3105

Hey everyone! I’ve embarked upon a mini project today. Recently, I’ve been listening to unreleased songs from the Tension era, (Vegas Baby and Running are two of my faves) and I’ve always felt like these two songs specifically exist in the same word as Vegas High, so I was inspired to create a concept EP titled ‘Vegas High’, extending that storyline in a sort of concept album (in my head this would’ve been some promo merch at the Vegas residency hehe). And thought I’d take you through the track list and the sort of storyline I created! :)

Track List:

1. ⁠Vegas High
2. ⁠Heavenly Body
3. ⁠Water
4. ⁠More Than A Feeling
5. ⁠Running
6. ⁠Heartbreak City
7. ⁠Vegas Baby
8. ⁠Drum

The storyline starts with Vegas High, initially I wasn’t going to include this as it is already on Tension, but since the EP is inspired by this song, I thought it would be fitting to start the story here. In the context of this EP, Vegas High narrates the rush and intensity of a new relationship, the ‘honeymoon phase’, here, our two characters are maybe a bit in over their heads.

“Loosing track of time / we’re rolling on the night / and falling to the sky / make my eyes roll back when I feel that Vegas high”
“Touching the heavens, oh yeah, we’re raising hell / open to everything like we’re in a dream / feel it coming over me”

I always picture a car speeding down the road to Vegas with this song, so wanted to establish that feeling at the beginning of the story. Kylie then highlights how strongly she feels towards her lover in the next two songs, ‘Heavenly Body’ and ‘Water’ (side note, the choir in this song is just heavenly).

“Oh, I, I missed you all my life / Lover, I didn't realize till you fell right from the sky / You're my heavenly body, my heavenly body tonight”

“Every drop of love I gave you / Turned into a river / So pour it all, pour it all over me”

The next song is ‘More Than A Feeling’⁠, which on the surface, seems like a love song, but this is where there begins to be hints that maybe everything isn’t as idyllic as we thought.

“But when the music stops / And the rhythm dies / I still think of us and I will my whole damn life”

Now, out of the context of my concept EP, this line probably means that their love transcends music. But in the context of this EP, this is where the comedown begins. The “music stopping” and the “rhythm dying” in this scenario is the break up. After an intense and strong start to this relationship, it crashed and burned, they came down from the ‘Vegas High’, and Kylie thinks that she will “think about us her whole damn life”.

The next song is ‘Running’, where Kylie is struggling to move on from this person, and just wants to run back to them, but knows she can’t.

“Driving down the wrong road to paradise / Without you I'm losing my mind / It's been way too many days and too many nights”
“Oh didn't we have it, a-all? / Have it a-all, you know / I miss the feeling”

The themes of “paradise” begin the call back to themes in ‘Vegas High’, which display her beginning to reflect on the relationship.

‘Heartbreak City’ is the next song, where she is beginning to move on. This song is quite uplifting despite the title so I thought this would be the perfect song for the part of the narrative.

“So can I just be sad for a minute now / Feel the pain and give into you now / Even though my heart is bleeding / I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave it / Sad songs I wanna play them/ Drive fast, I gotta cry now / Too hard to hold back the feeling / Heartbreak, Heartbreak City”

To me, this song is about accepting that you just have to feel the emotions that you need to feel to move on, to cry and let it all out and come out the other end stronger.

The penultimate song is ‘Vegas Baby’, which to me is almost the inverse of Vegas High. Here, Kylie is reflected on the beginning of the relationship but without the rose tinted glasses.

“And oh, we had everything we could need / We were beautiful, wild and free / We thought nothing would ever change”
“Oh we lost our minds / In the neon lights”
“Oh we danced, and we loved, and we felt the rush”

On its own, this song could be a more upfront version of Vegas High (positive), but in the context of this EP, Kylie is simply being realistic about that time and accepting that it was never going to last and that they were way in over their heads. It’s melancholy, but full of peace and acceptance too.

The final song on this EP is ‘Drum’ (a personal favourite of mine) and it’s the conclusion where Kylie accepts that she isn’t going to let the memory of anyone or any relationship hold her back, she’s going to dance to the beat of her own drum. The whole song outlines the end of a relationship, accepting it, and moving on. Essentially encapsulating the entire theme of the second half of this EP and tying it up with a nice ribbon as the conclusion.

“I don't know when we started fadin' / I know nothing's gonna change it”
“It wasn't a lie but it wasn't the one”
“You made a play for love / It wasn't what it was / Now it feels like closure”
“But I swear, from the very next settin' sun / Gonna dance to the beat of my own drum”

I actually wanted to end this EP with Kylie’s cover of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ that she sung at the Vegas Residency, as I thought it would be an appropriate close to the EP, but it was never officially recorded so I left it off.
Let me know what you think! I had so much fun putting this together and creating the graphics for it :)