Elina & James TW – “Scars” review: tender duet, brave message
Released August 29, 2025, “Scars” pairs Elina and James TW in a hushed, human duet about loving someone because of the marks they carry. It arrives with a lyric video and a performance video and opens the door to Elina’s new era, A Place I Recognize.
“Scars” opens gently. Elina’s voice comes first over fingerpicked acoustic guitar, with a soft, reverb-lit electric line at the edges.
As James enters, their lines knit into close harmony. The arrangement widens, then settles back to a tender hush.
That shape, a bloom then a breath out, matches the lyric’s idea: imperfections are not flaws to sand down, they are the story you hold up to the light.
Both singers spell out that message. Elina calls it a song about seeing someone fully, “not in spite of their scars, but because of them.”
James recalls writing it together on a rainy Shoreditch afternoon. You can hear that intimacy on the track. Their voices sit together naturally, locked in without competing.
The writing stays plainspoken and disarming. Elina leads with the line that anchors everything, “all of your scars make you who you are,” and James answers, “there’s beauty in the cracks, they’re letting in the light.”
It nudges you toward reflection without slipping into self-pity. The lift in the middle eight feels like someone taking your hand rather than delivering a speech. Play it once, and it is soothing. Play it twice, and it is quietly braver than it first seems.
As a career beat, “Scars” connects the dots. Elina’s decorated songwriting run, from NEIKED’s multi-platinum “Sexual” to cuts for Zara Larsson, Astrid S, Maroon 5, and SZA, explains the lyric discipline here.
James TW brings the same emotional clarity that carried “When You Love Someone” onto U.S. radio charts. Together, they find a shared middle: folk-pop warmth with pop-radio focus.
Our verdict: a soft-glow duet that makes acceptance feel like a form of courage.
You might also like:
- Big Thief – “Words” — close-room tenderness and careful restraint
- Patrick Watson – “Je te laisserai des mots” — quiet piano, memory, and absence
- Liana Flores – “Rises the Moon” — gentle folk drift and lyrical nostalgia
- Alex Radice – “I Don’t See You Coming Back” — intimate indie-folk, tender strings
