Solo artist Mynolia has released her debut All Things Heavy today. Having grew up all over the world, some of the the artists fondest memories include rescuing crabs in New Zealand, learning traditional songs in India, and even playing right-handed guitar in Canada when her parents didn’t know about left-handed ones. Though she now calls Berlin home, Mynolia’s travels deeply inform her worldview, one she defines as “zooming out for perspective” alongside brutal scrutiny.

“I have always felt just one step removed from the environments I’ve found myself in,” the singer says. That internal alienation, twinned with her globetrotting past, help her balance her interior life with the world around her.  “People argue that our living standard is higher than ever, but I see the types of problems shifting into a more internal and insidious space,” she says. Like Weyes Blood, Mynolia’s music is both personally and globally invested. Her lyrics bring out a universal vulnerability, such as in “White Noise.” A lub-dub, lub-dub backing beat suggests the heartbeats that stand in for companionship. “Sometimes I need to know that there’s heartbeats close to mine,” she sings between gauzy ooh’s and ahh’s, encapsulating the loneliness that drives the dreamlike song. 

The young artist is especially gifted at crafting melodies, whether she’s phrasing her lyrics or collaging non-verbal singing. She has an intuitive sense of knowing where to layer, where to strip down, and where to be bare. Traditional folk choirs, eastern flute music, choral singing, and opera helped round out her vocal development. The electronic elements tilt the singer closer towards Men I Trust or Bat for Lashes. “I just spiral around facing every direction,” she says, and this explains her musical influences, songwriting habits, and philosophy on social change.

As much as the melodies and lyrics stand out, her guitar work and backing beats contribute important texture. “Stall Stickers” opens with vocals, then a catchy bass riff, and then a drumbeat drops in. Mynolia sings without words, building atmosphere to the gorgeous brutality of the chorus: “Like a snake, you wrap yourself around my waist. I won’t let go because I don’t wanna be alone,” she sings, echoing the loneliness of “White Noise.” Here, though, she’s echoing a collective loneliness that tinges the nightlife world which Stall Stickers describes.”

The blues-tinged “Train of Thought” comes off one part ghost story and one part campfire tale. The singer’s effected vocals paint a lyrical landscape, one that keeps listeners guessing about its true context.  The layers of instrumentation, including a guitar “played through whacked-out pedals” and vocals push forward the central mystery of this track.

As for the album title, Mynolia says, “All Things Heavy is tongue in cheek — I beat myself up at being an overthinker and fondly refer to my chaotic moments as diving into the monkey mind doom fantasy. I’m glad to finally be sharing this body of work and what went into making it, from vivid dreams to melodic inspirations from distant regions of the world and musings of past and future. I hope listeners can find pieces of their own internal dialogue in these songs and hum these melodies when they get the blues because everything’s just too heavy sometimes.”