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First Listen - 5 STAGES OF GRIEF - Braden Bales
Braden Bales’s 5 STAGES OF GRIEF isn’t just a concept—it’s a confessional. After wrapping a string of shows supporting alt-pop rising star Livingston (including a fiery set in Ottawa, where I caught him live), Bales proves he’s not just built for the booth. His high-energy performance was magnetic—raw emotion wrapped in showmanship, with every lyric landing like a punch to the gut.
Now, on 5 STAGES OF GRIEF, Bales channels that same visceral energy into five tightly crafted songs, each representing a different stage of heartbreak. At just under 15 minutes, it’s a fast descent into emotional wreckage and a slow crawl out—but every step is deliberate, vulnerable, and gut-wrenchingly real.
EP Overview
Each track in 5 STAGES OF GRIEF captures one of the five stages—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—without ever naming them outright. Instead, Bales lets the emotions speak for themselves through masterful songwriting and stripped-down alt-pop production.
Track-by-Track Breakdown
1. I DON’T WANNA KNOW
This brooding opener teases anger and avoidance. With a simmering rhythm and Bales’s tense vocal delivery, the song explores the self-protective impulse to stay ignorant—even when emotional wounds still ache.
2. I DON’T (BUT I DO)
Denial takes center stage here. A light guitar bed gives way to conflicted vocals, as Bales dances around admitting how much he still cares. There’s a bittersweet tension between the breezy melody and the underlying pain.
3. SUBTITLE
Moving into bargaining, SUBTITLE pulses with a fragile optimism. Braden attempts to reframe the breakup narrative, toeing the line between hopeful reconstruction and the reality of loss—each melody imbued with quiet longing.
4. YOU LIED
This is the EP’s emotional crux. With a colder, sharper production, Bales directly addresses betrayal and mistrust. The song cuts through nostalgia to expose raw frustration and lingering hurt.
5. WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT
A hush falls over the final track. Full acceptance doesn’t arrive with crescendos—it’s still, introspective, perhaps even resigned. The sparse arrangement mirrors the emotional clarity that comes only after grief has run its course.
Sound & Production
5 STAGES OF GRIEF thrives in minimalism. The instrumentation is spare—acoustic textures, ambient synths, and just enough beat to anchor the emotional weight. Nothing is overproduced, allowing Braden’s vocals to sit front and center where they belong. Each track is crafted with care, showing restraint where others might oversell.
Why It Matters
With 5 STAGES OF GRIEF, Braden Bales proves he’s not just another heartbroken songwriter—he’s a storyteller, a curator of catharsis. Fresh off his first major tour and building a devoted following along the way, this EP feels like a bold emotional exhale, a moment of truth told in five parts.
He’s tapped into a generation’s emotional chaos and offered up a map for navigating it. It’s not clean, it’s not easy—but it’s real.
Final Word
5 STAGES OF GRIEF doesn’t ask for your attention—it earns it, with every line, every pause, every gutting reveal. It’s the kind of EP you play in one sitting, alone in your room, with headphones in and a lump in your throat.
It might not fix your heartbreak—but it’ll make you feel less alone in it.
Let it play. Let it hurt. And when you’re done, hit repeat. Because healing rarely happens in just one listen.
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