With warmth, charm, and a bit of cheek, Lily Talmers digs deep into the complexity of faith and love in her immersive new EP: Midwest Pressure Cooker. While the Michigan-based songwriter has always had a knack for writing songs that reach all the way into the heart, this new collection of songs from Lily Talmers has an extra bit of captivating magic. There’s a patience and a yearning that runs between the soft edges of these four endearing tunes. Readjusting the lens on her own life, Talmers meanders through intricate emotions and concepts and confronts them with honesty, glowing guitars, and melodies that swirl into a gentle embrace.
The EP starts with “As You Like,” a song that functions as both an elegant bit of sass and a goodbye. While a softly delivered reminder to us all that life must continue on, this break up song is framed with hope instead of hatred as Talmers cheekily wishes the addressee a continued journey of growth. Though there’s a hint of pain lingering in the end of what could have been, the song’s ever climbing melody always pushes forward amongst a bed of warm guitars that give this song its smooth sway and emphasize its emotional pull.
“Warm Bodies” dives into the entanglement of God and love, seeking something greater, and living inside of love’s sometimes hollow shell. Talmers’ voice shines so brightly throughout this track as it presses into oscillating phrases and sinks heavily into this powerful chorus. The bounce of the guitars in transition, the big pre-chorus build, and the way the drums punctuate this easy-flowing melody as it progresses all add to this EP standout’s ability to bring the listener inside the song as much as along for the ride.
An intentionally placed upbeat bit of sonic reprieve, “My Time” is Talmers’ funeral wishlist of sorts. Above a buzzing bassline, a grand, imaginative list of requests from whole states to sad banjo to a TV special unfolds with no detail spared. There’s a sense of freedom about the song that really takes off in the sing-along chorus. But it’s the nuances in the shifts of this song’s arrangement like the subtle introduction of the keys and riffs that pair with these phrase endings that consistently keep the song humming along.
Capping the EP with instrumental simplicity and societal disorder, “New Fashioned Holiness” is a song that seems made for a year and time like this one spent in constant struggle. It blurs the lines between wrong and right in a lullaby that wanders among the darkness of the turmoil in our current calamitous reality. As the lyrics indicate, “It’s a circus baby.”
This EP is only resonates more fully with each repetition. Once you’ve finished letting all of the Midwest Pressure Cooker EP make a home in your musical memory, you can listen to more from Lily Talmers here.
