Belinda Carlisle releases new EP 'Kismet'

Image: Nick Spanos

Pop icon Belinda Carlisle today releases her first ever EP Kismet, also her first English language studio collection since 1996.

Written by legendary songwriter Diane Warren, who was also behind Carlisle’s 1987 global hit ‘I Get Weak’, and produced by Mati Gavriel, Kismet showcases the impeccable pop credentials that made Carlisle a superstar in the 1980s and is easily as good as anything she recorded in her 35 years as a solo performer.

“Twenty-seven years on from making my last English language pop record I really wasn’t thinking I would ever make one again…and I was quite happy with that idea,” Carlisle says of the EP’s genesis. “Then a chance encounter in a coffee shop led me back to the wonderful Diane Warren and she gave me the incredible gift of this song and the other songs on my new EP. Diane’s songwriting is both a joy and mystery to me. She makes it look so easy, where I imagine it must be unbelievably hard, to do what she does so amazingly well over so many years and so many records. I can’t thank her enough for writing this music for me and I only hope everyone else loves it as much as I do.”

Diane Warren and Belinda Carlisle Image: Joe Poindexter

The EP opens with the glorious first single ‘Big Big Love’, a synthpop song that sparkles with beautiful melodies and Carlisle’s inimitable voice which has a gorgeous husky tone which adds texture to her performance. Full of multiple layers all with hidden gems, such as angelic backing vocals, like all great pop songs it gradually builds and builds, leaving you breathless and needing to hear it again.

Latest single ‘If U Go’ adds guitars to the mix and is a throw back to the more rock sounds of Carlisle’s earliest days with The Go-Go’s and tells of not being able to live without the one you love: ‘Please take me with you if you go’.

‘Deeper Into You’ is a lush pop-rock ballad that builds in more sonic layers as it progresses, while ‘I Couldn’t Do That To Me’ stays in the ballad territory, more pared back, more emotive but just as gorgeous.

The EP ends on ‘Sanity’, which is a dramatic, cinematic pop track which soars with uplifting melodies and an impassioned vocal from Carlisle. Lyrically, it is dark and melancholic as Carlisle grapples with her mental health. “You always brought me back to earth when I was spinning out…I’m going crazy / i just don’t know where you went / Sanity, oh sanity, why did you abandon me?”

Carlisle will be touring Australia through November and December on her Decades tour, celebrating 35 years of her solo career and performing her biggest hits. Now with Kismet, Carlisle introduces a new era of incredible songs to her repertoire and solidifies her as one of pop’s all time greats.

Kismet is out now via RAF/BMG. You can buy and stream here.
A CD and orchid coloured vinyl of Kismet will be released on August 25. You can pre-order now.
To keep up with all things Belinda Carlisle you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.