Reserved and quiet with needed polish, What Does Your Heart Hold? doesn’t live up to the poignant question in the song’s title. 

Listeners may confuse this release for an in-progress work, like a practice recording for rehearsals, or a demo for gigs. Besides the curious gentle volume, hardly hitting a mere mezzo-forte for a song whose lyrics include “the roar of your soul”, it’s a little shaky on the intonation, a little odd in the mix, a bit incomplete sounding in general. The track sounds more like a starting place than an ending place. 

But that business aside, here’s the far more positive part: this is an original work from female singer/songwriter Revathi Murthy (eXuvia is her artist name), who is the only performer on this song. I thought this was a female group when the piece first started playing, which speaks to Murthy’s composition abilities and overall one-woman show vision. This is a playful arrangement with creative ideas, clean percussion, and the right hook. 

Some of the ingredients are in the pan for What Does Your Heart Hold?, but this cake is still in the oven.