I already know I’m going to get sick of this song, I thought as I queued “Burnout” by EXES for the second time in a row, adding it to one of my playlists after hearing the ethereal beat drop and head-underwater harmonies the first time. 

When I like a song, I play it over and over—on the way to school, while I’m getting ready for work, while I’m making a snack, while I’m doing homework—until I inevitably grow tired of it; a process that occurs all too often.

Since discovering “Burnout” about a week ago, I have played it at least four times a day, all at different stages of my day, and I have yet to grow tired of it. That’s a minimum of 28 streams in the past week, and each listen is like the very first one. 

It’s the chorus that never gets old: the phrase “maybe you’re addicted to the way that I’m addicted to you” leads into the subtle beat drop, and then the high-pitched, heavenly harmonic hums lightly crash, like a dissipating wave lapping onto the shore. 

This song is liquidity, and this song belongs in the water. Or with the water. 

It’s one song out of the five from EXES’ latest EP, Once More, with Feeling, a collection of rosy tunes that are wonderfully catchy in the best way. 

“Wish You Well” is a bit paler than the first song, stumbling down a more mellow path, but the ethereal harmonies—which is a constant throughout the EP—and bright beats outshine the gloomier lyrics. Painting a picture of a messy breakup, the lyrics are brushstrokes of hard feelings; although the chorus is grim, the underlying beat and melodies create a sound that is anything but. 

Although “Wish You Well” is not nearly as upbeat as “Burnout,” it is still rosy—and still catchy, too. 

Containing multitudes and layers, “With Fire,” the rosiest track from the EP, is simply breathtaking. Like the layers of sand leading to the shore, this song is not linear. It is a rogue wave, a rocky shoreline, a set of uneven stairs leading to a lopsided house. It seems that each song from the EP belongs in the ocean, for it just sounds like it flourished there—with the oysters and their pearls, with the turtles and their shells, with the waves and their surfers. 

If the EP is an ocean landscape, “Promises” is the soft starry sky that blankets the water in tranquilizing darkness every night. Containing remnants of the lyricism and mellow undertones from “Wish You Well,” this track feels like a continuation of that song, much like the night is just a continuation of the day. 

Once More, with Feeling was a rosy collection of ethereal tracks that belong in the water—with the water. Above the water. How wrong I was to assume that I was going to get sick of those songs.