Review Summary: You get me all stinky and wet
Everyone that pursuits something creative knows the stupid struggle you face.
Your always feel like your work sucks and you the odds of you making it seem slim to non.
How on earth can you truly believe in it or that it will find a real audience.
Yet millions shoot their shot. Probably out of desperation or from a need of creative fulfillment.
Enter Sandy the singer-songwriter project of Sandra Pham. An ambitious girl with some local success in poetry. If you have been to a local open mic near Tilburg you probably seen her.
Her first single “Wachten” quickly gained somewhat of a meme status. It had a quirky improvisational tone it in the sense that it sounded like a song that was made up on the spot. It wasn’t great but it still managed to get stuck in my head from time to time. In her song “Geloven in wat ik doe" Sandra revealed to us that like many others, she also has a dream of making it big and that she promised herself to keep believing in it.
For what seems like years now Sandra has been teasing us with clips and demo’s. Seems like we were waiting forever for a full ep.
Sandra was really preparing for something. Now we finally have Messy mermaid EP. Six tracks going for only six minutes but a lot to unpack.
The ep opens with the intro which consists of a mermaid call set to a trap beat. Seems to set a good mood for the mermaid theme of the rest ep.
The first actual track is “Zeemeermin”. A tropical sound with a nice sounding ukulele that reminds you quickly about what a good song “Somewhere over the rainbow” really is... One of the biggest takeaways from this track is that we are in for some horny wet tracks. Previously Sandra’s explored more tame subjects but this time she seems all in.
The following tracks “Ik denk de hele dag al aan je” & “Week” are both just 42 seconds long and very similar in tone. “Ik denk de hele dag al aan je” has a pretty relaxing loving vibe and might be the best track of the ep. The moody guitars and slightly seductive lyrics feel comfortable and pleasant.
“Week” goes for a similar thing but really overshoots the target. It in turn might be the weakest track of this ep for several reasons. It has the same structure as “Ik denk de hele dag aan je” but the even more horny mood isn’t supported at all by the soft piano melody. Sandra also frequently sings off beat and the lyrics are the cringe worthy of the whole ep. Weirdly enough for a track that’s literally about being wet it still manages to somehow not fit in line with other mermaid themed tracks.
Interlude seems to go back to the whole mermaid theme with again some siren singing and some electronic beats in the background. Nothing noteworthy really.
The closing track “Niet Stoppen” feels very out of place with the whole mermaid theme but still remains very horny. It was clearly the big track of the ep but it still feels very out of place. It has potential but is still suffers from false singing and bad vocal placement.
And then it’s over. That’s about six minutes you’re never going to get back.
Let’s be honest Messy Mermaid is not great we all know that it. is filled with ideas and full of ambition but it fails to live up top it. Thematically the whole horny mermaid theme isn’t a bad choice but it doesn’t explore it in way creative way which keeps it very flat. With more polish it could be a lot more coherent and focused.
On her social media Sandra revealed that she had a lot of anxiety releasing this ep.
Hyping up her own projects which consist mostly of demos probably doesn’t help with that.
She kinda knew it wasn’t quite finished yet but still wanted to put something out. It was done kind of impulsively and in any other era this might seem like a weak excuse.
But in the age of Spotify your work only a few clicks away from being heard by anyone and the impulse to prematurely release your unfinished work seems very understandable.
I hope all of you also understand me when I say that I’d rather let myself be swallowed by the roaring ocean then to listen to this EP one more ***ing time.
