Released: September 29
The debut album from the United Kingdom’s 2023 Eurovision star proves Mae Muller has what it takes to be a fine pop star.
It was with I Wrote A Song that the north London singer-songwriter took to the stage in Liverpool, with her performance launching the track into the Top 10 of the UK charts and earning her legions of fans in the process.
Returning with her first long-player, the record is stacked with 17 tracks that strike a balance between soulful vulnerability and exhilarating confidence, with Muller infusing the recordings with her strong-minded yet irresistibly playful point of view.
Opening number I Just Came To Dance is one of those feelgood anthems, much like her Eurovision hit and recent single, Me Myself & I, that proves a winning formula across the album, appearing oftentimes at regular intervals between more poignant mid tempos like Sorry Daniel and I Wish I Could Hate You, injecting a shot of her infectious personality.
Whereas much of the album exists in electro-pop territory, in veering away from that tried and tested formula the record touches on moments of greatness, like the midtempo Somebody New – a electronic number underpinned by pulsing synths and driving beats – and Nervous (In A Good Way), with an ‘80s-inspired instrumental that’s on trend with the pop charts.
But while the expansive tracklist delivers a handful of gems, it’s also a stumbling block on ‘Sorry I’m Late’, which treads a fine line between a cohesive album and a collection of songs and undermines the strength of the first half of the record with a meandering sequence of tracks that seem to progress with little sense of direction or purpose.
As part of a shorter record, the acoustic MTJL – a strong song in itself – could work, but it gets lost as an instant outlier on the set. Meanwhile, the addition of Better Days – her collaboration with Swedish music collective Neiked and American rapper Polo G – places the Top 40 hit alongside a run of electronic bops that, come the end of the record, become indistinguishable.
By the time should-have-been heavy-hitting songs like Porn Lied To Us and Written By A Woman come around, it runs the risk of feeling like bonus track territory.
On ‘Sorry I’m Late’, Muller is undeniably an artist with plenty to give – from the writing to the vocal performance, she delivers – but where the songs are good, sometimes less really is more and cramming her first release with so much material dilutes the overall effect, with the resulting album something of a missed opportunity.
