Indie Light

Dodie (or Dorothy Miranda Clark) is an English YouTuber, Internet Personality and musician, originally from Essex but now based in London. She’s a vibrant and sweet artist who creates her own unique brand of soulful folky pop. This isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed the artist either and if you’re interested you can check that out here. Today though I’ll be reviewing her EP ‘Hot Mess’ which was released September 30th 2022. 

‘Hot Mess’ kicks off with vibrant acoustic guitar, the flows into Dodie’s sensational and soulful vocals, and man can she sing, her voice bridging the gap between joyful and sad in a way that few artists can manage. I really like the energy of this track, the counterpoint, the highs and lows, the fast and slow, and the edge that builds throughout to create a really rich and spectacularly engaging first entry on the EP. 

‘Got Weird’ has a really cool bass fuelled beat that really captures you and works really well with Dodie’s vocals, her lighter vocal register and the deeper bass balancing each other out and adding a depth and texture to the melody that really works well. I really like the energy of this track as well, the opening number was faster (for the most part) but this is more even in tempo, which again works really well. Towards the end there’s a slow down of the melody, it’s a really interesting compositional element and helps sell the ‘weird’ part of the title, and I love that afterwards picking up towards the end of the track it gets that little bit faster, again jarring the listener just slightly. 

‘Lonely Bones’ is a truly beautiful song, it has that subtle audio quality that you get with old records, and throughout it is just a triumph of Dodie’s exceptional voice and vocal skill. There is not a weak track on this release, but by far this track is my personal favourite, it’s pure and melodious and just showcases the raw talent and heart of the artist. I cannot recommend this track highly enough, and if you do anything today I urge you to listen to this. 

‘No Big Deal (I Love You)’ kicks things off with a sustained and repeated piano chord, the melody overall is slow to build, instead much the same as the previous entry Dodie’s vocals are the star of this particular number, and man you could easily fall deeply into her voice, it’s just so light and transcendent that you are just carried along throughout each performance and for the moments between the track starting and finishing the world around you ceases to exist. 

So that’s what I thought of Dodie’s EP ‘Hot Mess’ and if you want to check that out for yourself then head on over to Spotify. While you’re at it, make sure and support the artist by following them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.