When listening to a label backed artist (think Blackbear, the weekend, huge names) we’re often greeted with songs polished to perfection by at times 10s of different people from producers to mix and mastering engineers and god knows who else. With small artists, the situation is a tad different, with the crew shrinking to a handful of people (even just one person running the whole show at times). It can take ungodly amounts of time to get to a release ready, and as someone who’s spent hundreds if not thousands of hours messing around in Cubase personally I’ll tell you right now it is beyond difficult to achieve that radio level of polish everyone is striving for.

With all that said, I do not understand how MISSY exists. Like at all. Being the stage name of New Zealand born Abigail Knudson, MISSY is the embodiment of doing everything so well you forget you’re listening to an artist without millions of monthly listeners and a billion dollar record deal. For the sake of focusing in on one track and not just gushing blindly, lets shrink our scope to focus specifically on her single Cage. Cage is pure cinema in audio, roping you in with a simple but fluid synth arpeggio and ethereal vocal runs. Contrary to the flow of the intro we’re introduced to our protagonist with the blunt but apt “just admit it, you’re a bitch”, which is honestly such an insane and strong choice that I had to mention it, because while the rest of the song is far more fluid in its writing, that right there is the energy you signed up for. In the build up to the chorus were greeted with these movie trailer esc-synth stabs and background details that I think are one of the strongest points of any MISSY track, that being all the tiny methodical details. Atop that the usage of vocal layers paired with incredibly vivid metaphorical writing builds this artful yet clear picture all leading into the chorus, where we are met with the simple refrain of “keep me in your cage” with a thick blend of synth walls, string, heavy percussion, and pure ecstasy. I will digress that I know I’m a huge production nerd so things like this excite me, but this song genuinely made me giddy on the first listen as soon as that chorus hit. It’s nothing short of massively enveloping.

THE ARCHIVE is a series I made specifically to highlight songs that aren’t new because small artists so often have amazing songs like this get shoved under the rug because of it being the wrong place and time, but I want to end this article specifically saying aside from giving Cage a listen I absolutely urge you to check our her latest project simply but aptly titled FUCK, as its got just as much if not more ‘everything’. More cinema, more drama, more attitude. It’s actively taking over my playlist and honestly deserves an article of its own. To sum it all up MISSY reliably delivers an experience like none other, and I eagerly await what comes next.