As the Summer haze brings with it a web of sleepy afternoons, ice cream and the dreaded Mosquitos, a new kind of Mø has drifted into the vibe like the scent of sun cream. However Mø isn’t a mosquito, she is a Danish singer/songwriter formerly known as Karen Marie Ørsted. Under the managment of No Wav – a Danish company funnily enough, she has slowly been emerging from the dried up puddle of talent in 2013. She has been compared to electronic icons such as Grimes so already her sound has been given an Electro Pop accolade but what defines her is her mix of genres with snippets of Soul and Pop cauterizing the comparisons.
All her music is quite similar as it encapsulates the tinny simplistic beat that seems to be defining the underground music scene right now, however “Pilgrim” infuses the sound of clapping and trumpets into an otherwise bland concoction. The mixture of body sounds and the manufactured noise of the electronic could reflect the varied journey of raw and doctored images a pilgrim would encounter, which is all welded together by the silvery tones of her voice. The distinct flow of her voice is almost like water and the cry out for freedom is just as clear. Lyrics such as “Old wise river take me to sea. Breathe free” embody the wistfulness of wanting to start a whole new life somewhere better.
The hopeful childlike quality of “Pilgrim” where her AlunaGeorge-esque voice is full of sugary emotion contrasts greatly with the slick scorn in “Waste Of Time” which shows an inner hurt smoothed over with Mø’s sass with lyrics such as “what you want is to lose the one you love. I told you you’re gonna“. There is definitely a feeling of finality as the relationship being talked about in the song is justifiably broken off with the tagline being a “Waste of time”. The grim reality of the song is replicated in the hostile urgency of the first few bars of the intro which builds up through the crescendo of sounds like keyboard keys, outcries and echoey breathy notes that grow in aggression until the listener is immersed in the injustice, however once again, she softens as her identity is introduced once more through the trademark clapping and clicking which gives her a gritty reality. As the chorus kicks in, so does the riff of what could be a guitar so reminiscent of a typical Foals song which uplifts quite a bitter track. If it didn’t have the sour edge to it, that repressed pain a relationship ending can bring would have been lost under the toe tapping rhythm.
“Glass” has an entirely new concept from the very first chime of the bells welcoming in the song which are incredibly similar to Florence and the Machines‘ “Only If For a Night” but instead of giving to orchestral bliss, Mø takes it up a notch so that ethereal chimes float through to her first line which gives the song such a unique delicacy until the bridge which is where the glass breaks into shards of high pitched dubstep. This echoes the idea of the song as breaking down barriers of social convention and just letting yourself go is what Mø wants of her listeners. This is where her voice is given a powerful boost by backing vocal which only increase the Florence comparisons because sometimes her voice is not as prominent as the music.
Mø isnt just any maverick Summer phase – I can see longevity due her unique electronic take on mainstream Pop which has been tampered with enough to appeal to all kinds of music lovers especially as it characterizes that desirable freedom the Summer promises. Most of all, if her music doesn’t sum up your Summer with its chilled vibes then her honey trap voice will drag you in like an insect to the scent of suncream.
Purchase Mø’s “Waste of Time” on iTunes
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Skye Baker
