MAISI proves she has finger on the pop pulse with debut EP ‘GIRL!!!’
It’s with a bang that Maisi arrives in full on her debut EP, ‘GIRL!!!’. The four tracks and 11 minutes of fizzing electropop burst with personality and are effortlessly replayable, but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised - the rising star harbours an almost religious love of pop culture.
With a sound that is so fashionable right now, it’s easy to forget that it’s been three years since Maisi debuted her solo project with ‘Guess I’m in Love’. A series of sun-kissed and dreamy tracks followed as the 23-year-old set about finding her trademark sound and moved in circles with other pop provocateurs.
It was on 2023 piri collab ‘head’ that Maisi shifted things up a gear. Emboldened by her bestie’s prolific bassline flow, the songwriter honed in on cheekier lyrics and injected a certain menace to her delivery.
Maisi, who has always cited Charli XCX and Lily Allen as her two principal inspirations, began playing around with her own production and teamed up with producer moreofthem. A clever re-work of Sugababes hit ‘About You Now’ dropped last winter and that rattling rework very much served as a precursor for what was to come on ‘GIRL!!!’.
Fans had already heard two tracks from the project over the course of 2024. ‘Selfish’ sees Maisi rolling eyes in a London nightclub as a fellow partygoer refuses to share their Uber while ‘So Shy’ is a giddy ode to her boyfriend.
Made for the club but packed with candid and confrontational lyrics, the Allen-XCX influence is plain to hear and there’s more where that came from on GIRL!!!’s two new flicks.
On opening track ‘Not My Type’, elements of Maisi’s breezier first releases come to the forefront as she ponders an ex’s flaws with nonchalance. “It’s not deep, I’m alright, I guess you’re just not my type,” she muses on a track that has already seen BBC Radio 1 airplay.
The EP’s most head-turning production comes on ‘Fake It’, on top of which the singer decides to flee from confrontation. “I’ll fake it, let’s just hit play again,” she winks over a twinkling moment of respite before the track’s beat takes over once again.