Ocean Pleasant penned the songs on her 2024 EP “Ungrateful Daughter” during the pandemic after her life began to shift dramatically, beginning with losing touch with her mother. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter was born in Houston, Texas and currently has over 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Her successes include song placements on Sweet Magnolias and Teen Mom. In her free time she trains as an aspiring Muay Thai fighter in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Ocean Pleasant’s EP starts off with the warm sounds of an acoustic guitar and an electric keyboard on “First Ring.” Ocean Pleasant’s introductory song is about falling out of touch with someone she loves, presumably her mother, after one last argument. Even though the two don’t currently speak, Ocean Pleasant still feels completely willing to pick up her emergency (or not) call in the middle of the night. She sings about being strangers to the person she once was close with, and how there is no current bond, but the past bond remains strong like superglue. That bond could never fully disappear after what they have experienced together. The lyrics cut like a knife: “I’d answer on the first ring, but you’d never call.” A very emotional and soft vocal tone breathes even greater emotion into the track.
“Sky Is Less Blue” follows perfectly. This is another emotional ballad with deep lyrics. This song is about how our childhood affects our adulthood. Our childhood trauma carries into our adulthood if we aren’t lucky enough to find a good therapist that knows how to tackle the topic of working on our inner child. This song is complete with a picked, warm acoustic guitar and a catchy vocal melody.
The next song, “Don’t Want Kids” features a distorted guitar and another catchy vocal melody. Ocean Pleasant sings about her traumatic childhood and how it led to being afraid of turning into her mother. The pain of her past prevents her from ever wanting to raise kids of her own one day. She sings bravely and honestly on the track, “If I stole your youth, then you stole mine too.” The “Even” interlude is an extension of this song and allows the listener some time for the lyrics to fully sync in.
The last track on the EP is called “Off the Clock.” This song allows the record to end on a more positive note. We hear that Ocean Pleasant has overcome her childhood trauma and feels empowered and happy. We hear the brightness in her vocal tone as the lyrics focus on the things from her childhood that she can be grateful for. No one’s parents are perfect, and rarely has anyone’s parents done everything exactly right. Our parents are all flawed, often young individuals who maybe became parents too young. Hopefully, they were at least, trying their very best.
Written and performed by Ocean Pleasant
Produced by Tyler Thompson (Girlhouse)
Mixed by Kyle Mangels (BRAVES, Caye)
Mastered by Dale Becker (SZA)
Enjoy the songs on Ungrateful Daughter on Spotify now:
Written by Ryan Cassata
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