mxmtoon - dusk EP

If any ‘scene' was going to flourish in these times, it was surely always gonna be the world of bedroom pop. Ironically for one of its leading lights however, a global lockdown came just at the point where mxmtoon was starting to make huge strides away from her stripped-back beginnings. Any worries that ‘Dusk’ might be where her light starts to fade can get right outta here though, because it shows yet again that the Californian is one of our brightest hopes for 2021 and beyond.

You can pretty much guess what you’re going to get with a song called ‘bon iver’, and you’d probably be right. Vibing like a midnight drive at the tail end of summer, it sets the tone for an EP that seems to perfectly capture the transition between one thing and the next. Leaning back into the simpler folk-pop structure of ‘masquerade’, and largely written in lockdown, themes of isolation and hiding away from the world can’t help but emerge at points. Rather than becoming weighed down in melancholic thoughts however, ‘Dusk’ feels instead like a warm hug - though the heart-aching ‘wallflower’ is so beautiful and emotional that it should come with a ‘take care when feeling fragile’ warning.

By the time Her Royal Pop Majesty CRJ drops in on ‘ok on your own’, it doesn’t feel like an overstatement to say that it seems like a baton being passed from one Certified Legend to one in the making. It doesn’t matter what room it was created in, this is pop of the very, very highest order and should help see us through until the next days, weeks and beyond.

Jamie MacMillan