EP Review MØ - Bikini Daze

Releasing the punchy, no-prisoners ‘XXX 88’ and the ‘is this an actual ballad?’ ‘Never Wanna Know’ back in September, it was suffice to say that MØ had thrown a couple of curveballs to preview her debut EP ‘Bikini Daze’. She’s fast becoming more of an enigma than ever.

Opener ‘XXX 88’ bears the hallmarks of the trap genre – 808’s, hi-hats, layered synthesizers, with MØ chanting a series of wild ‘heys!’ in the chorus. It’s not an anomaly, either. Its counterpart comes in the suitably ceremonial ‘Dark Night’; an immense, introspective take.

There’s a flipside. ‘Never Wanna Know’ is the turning point; a pure and simple ballad. It’s easily the most likely track to endear MØ into public consciousness. Charts await. It’s bolstered by the closing track ‘Freedom (#1)’, in which the taunter of ‘Never Wanna Know’ still lingers, the grim lines take on its most dangerous manifestation.

‘Bikini Daze’ is essentially a tale of two sides, with the sequencing of the EP presenting each story like the flip of a coin. At its centre is the equivocal MØ, unafraid to shake pop conventions with a complex stick. ‘Bikini Daze’ proves that MØ has pretty much mapped out every aspect of her identity; it’s up to her which path she chooses to take.