Magi Merlin swings big on her new single and propulsive video for ‘SpiceKick’, compressing all her eclectic tastes into a high-stakes tune that reconfigures alt-R&B on her own terms. The single arrives alongside the announcement of her debut album POWER HOUSE, due July 10. The video directed by Félicie Diaz & Noshirt is punk, corporeal and choreography-forward, as relentless as the track itself.
“I wanted to open the project with something loud, flashy, and seemingly arrogant. The track, though, is a kind of façade. I’ve felt as confident as ‘SpiceKick’ sounds, but that feeling can’t last forever, perhaps it shouldn’t. Sometimes arrogance becomes a cover for fear and inadequacy. The mask slips at the end when I tell the listener to save themselves from me. ‘SpiceKick’ is an ode to ego and self-confidence, something that can curdle into self-loathing if left unchecked.”
Screw the soft launch. Magi’s target audience is her fellow obsessives, she sings directly to the listener pressed up against the other side of the screen’s glass. She coined her own genre for it: Broken R&B, less a marketing term than an honest account of how she works, co-writing and co-producing with long-time collaborator Funkywhat, leading on her own art direction, shaping a visual world as self-defined and infectious as the music.
Power House:
- Welcome Home
- SpiceKick
- EAT!ME!OUT!
- So Smart
- Thank You!!!
- WHIP
- Crawl
- pixxxie
- Workout
- Salt
- POPSTAR
- Wtvr
