'Next To You', Misty Miller's latest EP, is packing a whole lot of angst. Still in her teens, the Londoner has penned a collection that takes her further from her acoustic beginnings and into a murky mixture of pop, blues and punk.
The title track begins with with a strummed chord and the first of Miller's list of grievances against a former lover. “I washed my hair for you...I shaved my legs for you...I made the bed for you,” she croons before a shit-kicking chorus that closes with the refrain: “I'm just a body to you, you wouldn't care if I was lying there dead, next to you.”
In a recent interview with the Upcoming, Miller succinctly explained the emotions behind the song when identifying it as a live favourite. “I believe more people should feel pissed off, especially about people using you,” she said. “It is a good emotion to have.”
'Anything for You' finds Miller in a similar frame of mind. “I would do most anything, most anything for you,” she sings in the chorus, although it's not too difficult to imagine her fingers crossed behind her back. With a boisterous display from her rhythm section, the track rattles along before Wait, a quiet ballad with tones of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Maps, creeps from the speakers.
Miller's vocals are well-suited to a stripped back arrangement and she provides a delightful moment as she contrasts classic pop 'oohs' with the lyrics: “Wait, before you put your head in a noose, wait before you cut all your strings loose, wait before you jump off of the bridge, wait, you know you've gotta live, because I love you.”
Tea In China bristles with malevolence beneath a distorted guitar, with the song building to a crescendo of wailing solos following Miller's repeated insistence that she “knows where you're coming from”. It's another powerful song, and works as a neat counterpoint to the bright arrangements that preceded it.
On I've Got Everything, the EP's final track, Miller brings out an acoustic guitar for a distant, isolated sing-along. Her voice is clothed in echoes and just a thin layer of fuzz, while a harmonica nestles in the background. It's a strangely bleak conclusion, but one that fits the record's tone well.
Miller has already been championed by Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq and other taste-makers and it's easy to see why. Her influences – Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Iggy and the Stooges – are writ large across the course of the five songs but amid them she manages to find a wry, sarcastic voice of her own. Big things are expected of her, and on this evidence she's going to deliver in style.
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