On her new single “Deluded,” rising star Ellie Byers gives you an opened vein. In a scene rife with cookie-cutter production and throwaway hooks, “Deluded” separates itself with its raw sincerity and depth of emotion. Every line sounds like it’s been lived through, each note dripping with the agony of realization and the gradual unraveling of denial. Her voice is both tender and overwhelming in a way that’s close to looking into the faces of whoever saw the song’s subject.
Ellie leads us into the emotional maze of confusion and hope, and from the first verse, we don’t know where longing fades and illusion ends. It is the manner in which she walked that emotional tightrope, with clarity, grace, and unflinching honesty, that makes “Deluded” so compelling. The words not only tell a tale, but they paint it in bold swatches of heartbreak, self-searching, and that most human instinct to believe what we want to be true, no matter what evidence to the contrary.
Whether it’s those tiny fissures that emerge as she climbs toward emotional peaks, or those more subdued moments when she retreats into breathy resolution, it’s unavoidable to her what she feels. “Deluded” is the sort of song that takes your attention quietly. And once it has it, it never lets go. With “Deluded,” Ellie doesn’t only tell her story, she creates space for listeners to feel their own. Keep an ear on Ellie Byers. If “Deluded” is anything to go by, it sounds like she’s only getting started at breaking our hearts in the best way.