Miya Folick

The album cover of Erotica Veronica captures Miya Folick canted on the edge of a mud pit, limbs flung wide like a fever-dream fossilized midway between earth and primordial soup. It's an apt portrait: Miya is driven by instinct, drawn to the murk and muck of growth rather than stalled by its complexity. This brazen spirit is what led her to self-produce her latest full-length record, which is saturated with her catchy lyrical sensibility, astute musical craftsmanship, and signature vaulting, acrobatic voice. Both critically acclaimed precursors - her debut Premonitions and sophomore LP Roach - have been lauded as coming-of-age rhapsodies. It is tempting to say the same of Erotica Veronica; after all, this new album shows us a woman running headlong into sexual exploration, often teetering on the adolescent edge of hedonism and fear. Unlike the feral freedom of youth, it is anchored by the wisdom and depth gained only through lived experience.