Project Description

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HOLLY ‘COOKIE’ BAKER
‘THE WINTER’
Single Review

(3rd October, 2025)

Review by Melanie Griffiths

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Holly ‘Cookie’ Baker has always had a knack for turning raw emotion into melody and her new single “The Winter” is no exception. Where her earlier duet “The Summer” with You Am I’s Tim Rogers radiated warmth, “The Winter” takes a more contemplative pitch, lingering on heartbreak yet edging toward renewal.

The production, handled by Mario Spate, is striking in its restraint. Layers of strings swell without drowning the intimacy, while subtle electronic textures creep in around the edges, giving the track a richness that feels cinematic, as if you were soaring over a canyon. Spate’s ear for space is evident, nothing is overplayed and every element breathes.

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Cookie’s lilting voice is the anchor; light in the tone but carrying a sharp emotional weight. She sings with an unhurried cadence, allowing each lyric to settle. The collab between her delicacy and Ollie English’s grounding baritone creates a tension that pushes the song beyond standard balladry. Their harmonies ache in a way that recalls the aching clarity of acts like Angus & Julia Stone, but with a champer-pop polish that sits closer to Sarah Blasko or Bat For Lashes.

Lyrically, Cookie threads between confusion and observation. There’s an honesty in the way she acknowledges resignation without letting it collapse into cynicism. It’s not grandiose but it cuts cleanly.

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What impresses most is how Cookie stretches her sonic palette here. The champer-pop atmosphere and emotional layering mark a departure from her folk roots, suggesting an artist unafraid of reinvention. You can hear the grit of her earlier collaborations with Tim Rogers or Angie Hart, but with the scope has widened, there’s a maturity in this track that signals new possibilities.

The Winter is less a song of loss than one of reckoning, proof that Baker’s strength lies not only in her lyricism but in her ability to evolve while staying true to her core.

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Follow HOLLY ‘COOKIE’ BAKER
Website – Instagram – YouTube – Spotify

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Press Release 26th September 2025 (below) HERE

From
‘THE SUMMER’
to
‘THE WINTER’
HOLLY ‘COOKIE’ BAKER
transforms heartbreak into hope
with powerful new single

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AMNPLIFY – DB

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