There is little that I can impart about the background of Meenk that will enlighten those as unfamiliar with her music as I am but sometimes obscurity is the point of the exercise and it might even be said it is that very obscurity that gives these four songs both their naturalistic charm and their emotional resonance.
After all, we were all young once – even if it wasn’t exactly yesterday – and it is that near spectral presentation of innocence that pervades the music of Meenk. She drifts like a dazed and confused Fiona Apple through both “Reasons” and “Up” whilst adding a most welcome dollop of displaced teenage angst to each of those songs. That might sound like a conflict of song writing interests but sweet Meenk carries it all off with the kind of determination that transcends her laconic vocal style.
Meenk isn’t likely to run out of melodies either, as “19” proves, and she takes the song to mall for a wander and a ponder on the pleasures of growing up. “Happiness Forgets” ends this EP on a remarkably well balanced note of melancholy and maturity that reinforces the feeling that there is better, in both metaphorical and artistic terms, to come.
Whether success will knock at Meenk’s door – or whether success could even find her door – is a matter for conjecture but, on the evidence of these four songs, she is clearly willing to walk further into the urban jungle than most twee poppers ever would and that is enough to warrant a recommendation from me.
Available from Bandcamp.