Anxiety is an all-too-real affliction. And since the wisdom to develop coping methods usually comes over a fairly long period of time, we gotta give credit to the younger generations figuring out those mental health strategies on the fly. In the same respect, enormous kudos to the folks that translate those trials into great tunes, thereby creating an accessible resource for others in need.
Among them is Millie Mountain, a Brixton-based singer-songwriter, who at just 23, has already made countless impressions across the globe with her 2020 debut EP Blurred Out Faces and subsequent steady stream of singles. So despite a super cool jazz-neo-soul-plus presence that instantly evokes Erykah Badu, you can imagine that international attention might be more than enough to give someone in their early twenties the willies.
Well today, following up a straight-ahead embrace of U.K. garage/two-step on April’s “Like Water”, Mountain returns to her neo-soul roots and lets her scatterbrain do the geat-shifting on her latest single. Based on the variety and caliber of her accrescent discography, we don’t necessarily want to call this new one Mountain at her peak performance. But what we will say is thanks Jay Prince/Reuben James producer Tom Ford and Little Simz/Arlo Parks engineer Matt Barnes, “Running”is, well, in the running for the one of the best sounding-things to come out this year; far from aural cardio, “Running” slows down with an afro-beat-inspired back beat, a smooth-as-hell loop for the hooks, and, as with all things Millie Mountain, jaw-dropping vocal dynamics and multi-register intervals. Safe to say Cleo Sol and Jorja Smith have another new contemporary.
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