★★★★☆

On the whole, contemporary indie rock seems particularly prey to unfulfilled potential.

Disappointingly often, musicians in the genre set up a situation or a sound that they then seem unable to bring to fruition, hinting at an emotional maturity that their fragile tunes bend and break under.

Georgia Mulligan is the exception to that particular rule. If anything, Mulligan is all about overwhelming the listener rather than cutting them short, and her songs find much of worth in the territory most musicians would lack the bravery to even skirt around. She is that, then – a singularly unafraid songwriter, and ‘White Lies’ mixes up a drenched melody with a vivid, spat-out chorus, whilst ‘The Worst Part’ swings back from trauma to transcendence and then all the way back again.

Indeed, Mulligan’s skill is making pain seem like a triumph, and triumph seem like pain. By refusing to settle for anything resembling the middle ground, Mulligan blasts her tunes into the walls of your heart, pounding out messages in the places you thought secret.

The end result is an EP that feels like something cut from your life; not for you but of you. This is music you already know, somehow songs you have been hearing your whole life without even realising it. You don’t know Georgia Mulligan yet. But Georgia Mulligan knows you.

Georgia Mulligan’sOur Blood To Partis released independently and available on iTunes.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine