Re-releasing old songs is usually the domain of artists who’ve either run out of new ideas or desperately need to remind people they still exist; like a high school reunion announcement, but with more reverb. Thankfully, Ripsime is neither of those. Instead, she’s decided to dig up three early tracks in the form of “Dare,” “Colors of Your Eyes,” “I’ll Understand” and send them back into the world with the confidence of someone who has both improved significantly and is perfectly aware you’re about to notice. It’s a flex. A tasteful flex, but a flex nonetheless.
This whole resurrection is packaged under the freshly minted banner of RIP Records, her own imprint, because apparently juggling British-Armenian identity, production work, songwriting, visual art, and a steadily rising alt-pop career wasn’t enough for her. No, she also decided to take on infrastructure. And if that sounds overly ambitious, welcome to the Ripsime experience wherein overly ambitious is the baseline.
To accompany the re-releases, she’s also created a limited-edition art print, because why wouldn’t she casually drop another medium into the mix? It’s all part of a broader artistic ecosystem where her music and visuals behave like co-conspirators whispering from the same mood board. Ripsime isn’t just presenting songs; she’s building a little universe where sound, imagery, and the occasional mystical undertone hold hands and make intense eye contact.
“Dare” kicks things off like the early-career experiment you’d expect from an artist who hasn’t yet learned the difference between “pushing boundaries” and “grabbing the nearest synth and seeing what happens if you stress-test it like a microwave.” It’s the unruly middle child of the trio, buzzing with that wonderfully feral energy of someone who very much has ideas and absolutely no interest in whether the equipment can handle them. The tension hums under every beat, as if the song itself is pacing in circles waiting for you to catch up. And honestly? This is the earliest, clearest glimpse of the Ripsime-to-come; the one who fully intends to weld rock and electronic elements together, ideally without blowing a circuit. “Dare” doesn’t just hint at ambition; it gives you the blueprint and a safety disclaimer you really shouldn’t ignore. It’s Björk meets Melanie Martinez by way of cosmic psychedelia, with hip-hop-adjacent percussion snapping beneath guitars that seem to be melting in slow motion. It’s a lot. In a good way.
“Colors of Your Eyes” is the psychedelic cool-down after the chaos; a shimmering, Flaming Lips–coded daydream that feels like Do You Realize?? wandered into an astrology seminar and decided, yes, this is absolutely its new personality. It’s warm, floaty, and deeply sincere in that early-career way where the artist hasn’t yet learned to hide their earnestness behind metaphor and sarcasm. Which is infuriating, because the track is annoyingly good for something made during her so-called “baby musician” stage. You can hear her discovering her own magic in real time, each melodic choice like a lightbulb switching on over her head. It’s whimsical, self-aware, and suspiciously cohesive; exactly the kind of track future fans will pretend they “always knew was special,” even though most of us were too busy being blinded by the emotional glitter.
“I’ll Understand” (especially the live acoustic version) is where she drops the dreaminess, lights a candle, and channels her inner Björk; not in the “unpredictable Icelandic chaos spirit” sense, but in the “I am going to sing this like I’m processing the last 24 hours of my life in real time, and you’re going to sit there and take it” sense. Stripped back to its essentials, the track becomes a pressure chamber: soft instrumentation, trembling vocals, and a rhythmic delivery that edges into hip-hop syncopation just enough to make you wonder when, exactly, she decided to be this clever about phrasing. It’s raw without being messy, minimal without being fragile, and quiet in the way a held breath can be louder than a shout. “I’ll Understand” is the emotional nerve ending of the trio; the one that makes you stop scrolling, sit still, and actually feel something, whether you like it or not.
All of this lands differently in the light of her recent singles, “Shamanic Faith” and “Paradise.” The former is a full-blown declaration of artistic adulthood. It’s the moment in a coming-of-age movie where the protagonist finally gets a sword, except the sword is a towering alt-pop production with spiritual undertones and synths that sound like they’re announcing the beginning of a cult that’s actually pretty chill. Ripsime fuses ‘80s nostalgia with modern experimental pop in a way that shouldn’t work but absolutely does.
With RIP Records now in play, Ripsime is doing something that many artists attempt and very few pull off: she’s making her universe coherent. The sound, the visuals, the story she’s telling about herself; it all operates on the same wavelength. Nothing feels outsourced or phoned in. It’s creative autonomy, treated not as a branding buzzword but as a functional lifestyle choice.
So yes, this could have been an ordinary re-release campaign. But instead, it’s a statement: the past matters because it’s still part of the architecture of the future. Ripsime’s early songs aren’t relics; they’re foundations. And now that she’s finally building upward at full height, the view is getting interesting.
Follow Ripsime
About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
