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.

Determined to make a straight-shooting indie rock record, Miya turned to guitar to write a majority of the album. She brought on Sam KS (Youth Lagoon, Angel Olsen) as co-producer and drummer, and recruited collaborators like Meg Duffy (Hand Habits, Perfume Genius) and Waylon Rector (Dominic Fike, Charli XCX). Leaning musicians’ personal style and skills, she went into the studio with the intention of capturing raw, live sound.

After a meteoric couple of years touring with Mitski, Faye Webster, and Japanese House, as well as scoring feature film Cora Bora, this record is a return to Miya’s private world. She lays it on us in turns like honey and heartache, each medicinal in its own right. Erotica Veronica is her psychosexual, psychosensual masterstroke: a kaleidoscopic portrait of self-realization and integration.