Debut EP from MIYNT is flawless alt-pop that could take over the world.

 

It’s not very often that we stumble across an artist such as MIYNT. She thoroughly impressed us with her recent output After The Gold Rush and, now, has done it again. With her debut EP just around the corner (September 16) and a new single (You Were Never Too Much) set for release two days prior to that, she’s giving people a bit too much choice – especially when the EP, EP no. 1, is so brilliant.

From the opening wah strains of After The Gold Rush to the oddly-Beatles, sixties-throwback opening melodies of The Deer or The Hunter, MIYNT sets the tone for the EP perfectly. This is a set of pop-pumped songs that are absurdly different to anything else you will hear in the near future, applying careful dosages of experimentalism to the core mechanics of pop music for tracks with universal appeal.

Few tracks do this better than Cool, a song that blurs Lana Del Rey, Lorde and David Bowie into three-minutes of sun-kissed, funked up pop. While every track of the EP demonstrates the wonderful voice that MIYNT possesses, it is here that we get the most aspects of it as she switches between the usual soulful singing and a melancholy monotone that oozes apathy and coolness. It is also here that we get the most biting social commentary, with the line “I’m selling my house, but you can’t have my phone” perfectly capturing the spirit of the times.

If that and the rest of the EP wasn’t enough to convert the non-believers, final track Birds certainly is. Swapping the more pop-conscious experimentalism for a tender acoustic-driven sound that is subtly psychedelic and distinctively different, MIYNT brings the EP down gently with a slow-burner that develops into a call-and-response chant with a memorable melody. It’s the perfect return to earth for a stellar EP that never once lets you down.

Sure, the title of the EP itself isn’t anything to give any impression that this is going to be a boundary-pushing or gamechanging release, and in a sense that is for the best. MIYNT doesn’t fall into the pretentious traps of the artiste and instead blows people away without pretense. EP No. 1 is what every artist should strive to achieve: something different, yet accessible, that needs no introduction and is undeniably flawless.