Reviewing Miia: 'NECESSARY EVIL' - A DARK, CLUB-DRIVEN EVOLUTION OF HER SIGNATURE EMOTIONAL SOUND
- 6 hours ago
- 1 min read
Here is a name worth knowing if you do not already: MIIA, the Norwegian alt-pop artist who released ‘Dynasty’ at seventeen years old and watched it hit number two on the US Viral 50 in under three weeks. That was 2016.
Nearly a decade later, ‘Dynasty’ still pulls around 200,000 daily streams and over 300 million total plays. Whatever she has been working on since, it had better be good. Based on ‘Necessary Evil’, the wait has been entirely justified.
This is a genuine left turn, and a thrilling one. Produced by Joachim Rygg, the same architect behind ‘Dynasty’, and mixed by Spike Stent, whose credits read like a hall of fame, ‘Necessary Evil’ takes MIIA’s cinematic vocal identity and drops it into the kind of late-night electronic world she has not previously occupied: skittering 2-step drums, punchy sub-bass, chopped vocal textures, the warm-dark pulse of UK garage and speed garage and bassline making their presence very much felt. The result is simultaneously euphoric and emotionally raw, which is the combination that the best emotionally intelligent dance music pulls off and most of it does not.
The lyric deals with choosing honesty over comfort in the moments when it is hardest: the decisions that feel painful or misunderstood but are necessary for growth. That thematic weight riding over a hypnotic club-ready production creates a contrast that MIIA manages with complete assurance. Her debut album Huldra is coming this summer. If this is the opening statement, the full record is going to be something worth clearing your diary for.
Comments