Berlin trio Matching Outfits return with double single ‘Mini Moon’ / ‘Leave It’, led by a charmingly offbeat ode to fleeting artistic and romantic inspiration. Taking its name from an asteroid briefly caught in Earth’s gravitational pull before disappearing back into space, ‘Mini Moon’ turns that temporary orbit into a metaphor for connections that remain tantalisingly out of reach – albeit with Linnea Mårtensson’s wonderfully blunt observation that “everybody wants to be my friend / if I fuck them first.”
Guitar-led indie pop forms the heart of ‘Mini Moon’, coloured by retro-pop touches, occasional handclaps and candy-sweet backing harmonies. Mårtensson’s Swedish-accented deadpan gives it an endearingly left-field character, tossing out its sharpest lines with barely a raised eyebrow. As the track progresses, the arrangement becomes increasingly playful, with sweeter harmonies and handclaps joined by a welcome burst of saxophone. B-side ‘Leave It’ takes a stranger route, pairing prominent, charmingly wonky piano with scattered chaotic percussion and abrupt tempo changes. Mårtensson retains her deadpan delivery but allows more emotion to creep through, while the track’s art-pop and post-punk edges bring to mind the playful experimentation of Kleenex/Liliput.
‘Mini Moon’ also comes accompanied by a suitably whimsical DIY video, following Mårtensson through Berlin’s Rehberge park armed with sunflowers and a gloriously homemade papier-mâché moon. Different enough to show two sides of Matching Outfits but oddball enough to unmistakably belong together, both tracks find plenty of charm in things being just a little bit wonky.
