E^ST (born Melissa Bester) takes a hard look in the mirror in her new single, but she sounds like she's having some fun doing it.
E^ST is following up “Fresh Out of Love” (out in February) with “Maybe It’s Me” (out today), and the Australian singer-songwriter makes introspection sound appealing in the new single.
“I’ve been looking for the reason,” she sings. “Why I’m sucking at this I’ve been pointing fingers / Can’t find a winner I’m getting triggered / ‘Cause maybe it’s so obvious / Maybe it’s me.”
E^ST’s deep, thick tone is overlapped by frenetic beats. Add in the hyperlapse visuals, and “Maybe It’s Me” is hypnotising.
“This song is about being a hot mess in life, and starting to wonder if maybe life has nothing to do with it and you just kinda suck,” E^ST said in a press release.
“Maybe It’s Me,” produced by Jim Eliot (Ellie Goulding, Christina Perri and more) balances “Fresh Out of Love” nicely. “Fresh Out of Love” is a slower, syrupy ballad that outlines E^ST getting burned by others. She isn’t blaming herself here like in “Maybe It’s Me,” rather admitting she doesn’t “have enough for what they take from me.”
Both serve as enticing previews for her album I’m Doing It due out June 12.
“The first half of the album is all about being a heartbroken mess as your life falls apart, and it’s wallowing in that with no effort to make sense of it,” she added. “I mean you need to have a wallow—it’s crucial.”
While “Maybe It’s Me” is definitely self-deprecating, it does send a quaint message about accountability and what might improve when you stop blaming life and start looking at what role you play in it all.
