Navigate through love's shadows with Mary Middlefield's latest EP

A haunting chronicle of unrequited love and the darker facets of affection, Mary Middlefield's Poetry (for the scorned and lonely) peels back the raw experiences that shaped the young woman behind the music. This brave display of pain has been masterfully transformed into a cathartic collection of songs.

"Sexless" begins the journey with a direct candidness that exposes the weight of societal expectations on intimacy. The track is a stark reminder that the absence of love is not an absence of being, as Mary Middlefield probes deep into the theme of grooming with a vulnerable ferocity.

In contrast to blunt reality, "Atlantis" carries listeners into the depths with metaphors of an enigmatic love. Its soft guitar and ethereal undertones evoke the perilous allure of total surrender to another. 

And while Mary Middlefield's words carry such weight, "Allodynia" briefly interrupts the narrative, akin to a momentary introspective pause, with a short, purely acoustic interlude. You can almost feel the band catching their breath after the emotional heaviness of the previous tracks.

Diving back into that pain, "Heart's Desire" flips the bright sonority of chords into something darker with lyrics capturing the grim dangers of unreciprocated feelings. 

"Love me, Love me not?" employs the childlike simplicity of plucking petals from a flower to navigate complex emotions, revealing the trauma bound within the guise of love. "I'll bear a child; I'll wear the ring," she promises the unnamed man. But it's not a promise out of love, but fear—fear of abandonment, fear of reprisal, fear of countless alternatives.

The terror briefly appears with discordant strings opening "Young and Dumb" before it quickly transitions to an intensity mirroring the turbulence of manipulation within relationships. With angry guitar rifts and a broiling bridge, the understanding of exploitation comes with visceral, painful clarity. "Am I the pain you laughed to the joke I cried to?" she repeats, the swirling logic jumping from realization to realization.

The longest track, "Last Letter – Acoustic", eases back from that intense rock sound. It's an intimate confessional, both beautiful and sorrowful. Middlefield's floating head voice paints pain with beauty through a delicate melody and honest lyrics.

Closing the album, "Poetry" wraps the listener in a soothing blend of ambient sounds and melodic resonance, suggestive of the search for meaning in chaos.

Poetry (for the scorned and lonely) is an unflinching look at abuse in relationships and its consequences. As Middlefield said herself on Instagram, "Writing this was painful, triggering, uncomfortable and dreadful at times. However, as I am writing this, I'm letting go. I hope this record gets to the right people, who feel stuck, scorned and lonely. It's yours now." We could all use this release and compassion.

If you're the "right people," stream Poetry (for the scorned and lonely) below.

Ben McCoy

Ben is an advertising Madman who spends his days with words and music. When he's not writing for his supper, he's eating it at some of NYC's most interesting restaurants.