Photo Credit: Earthprogram
Emerging alt-pop artist Izzy MacArthur’s debut EP drops November 8 (today) through a unique scavenger hunt with her loyal cult fanbase. The pop star mailed anyone who pre-saved her previous single “Landmines” clues that direct fans to work together via social media to solve the new mystery. The result is the title of a 5-track EP.
MacArthur says ‘Blame It On A Bad Dream’ represents Izzy’s response to a time of chaos, uncertainty, and many late nights spent ruminating on changes in her life. Those changes include exiting adolescence and discovering who she is as a newly minted young adult. Izzy MacArthur has already amassed 98,000+ streams on Spotify with just four songs under her belt. This EP release solidifies her debut as a formidable emerging artist with deliberate songwriting and storytelling skills.
The tracks on this debut EP were written in collaboration with Spencer Hattendorf, Nate Mondschein, and Fran Litterski (Danielle Bradbury, Mary Kutter), with MacArthur maintaining a close knit team to weave a thread through the collection of songs. Focus-track “Light Sleeper” is the opener, while her single “Exit Wounds” follows.
Blame It On A Bad Dream EP Track Listing
- “Light Sleeper”
- “Exit Wounds”
- “Landmines”
- “Misery Missing Company”
- “Sleepwalking”
“I wanted for the EP ‘eve’ to be on my birthday because I feel like birthdays signify the beginning and end of a chapter, which is what ‘Blame It On A Bad Dream’ represents for me right now,” Izzy MacArthur tells Digital Music News about the new release. “I’m nostalgic because I wrote these songs about a period of my life where I did a lot of growing up, but also know this is just the beginning. I think birthdays have the same sentiment, where you’ve grown up another year, but at the same time, it’s not like humans are stagnant. We’re always changing and I don’t quite think we ever stop growing up.”
The ‘Blame It On A Bad Dream’ EP features all released singles up to this date, including “Exit Wounds.” That single was described by Under the Radar as “giving voice to and laying bare the hidden anxieties and unspoken truths that remain in the aftermath of heartbreak.” Izzy narrates her life with a raw sense of lyricism, balancing the fragile nature of speaking on loved ones’ mental health delicately on “Landmines” and of her own discomfort in “Light Sleeper.”
“‘Light Sleeper’ felt like a song I needed to write at the time, and when I did, it felt like a huge weight had been taken off my chest,” MacArthur says. “It’s really special to me because I named the EP after a line in it. The song somewhat represents how I felt during the period I was writing all these songs. The same specific memories would pop up in my head over and over again, and I was stuck in a quite cyclical headspace.”
“Blame It On A Bad Dream’ was the first line I wrote in my notes app when I began writing for the EP, but ironically, the last song we finished. I kept trying to sneak in other songs, and nothing stuck until we wrote ‘Light Sleeper.’”
Izzy invites listeners to immerse themselves in a vivid recount of a piece of life they feel as if they’ve lived before. Her knack for drawing together her inspirations, along with unabashed, and sometimes blunt confessional style of writing reveals her confidence and grace as she stands on her own two feet. Izzy cites current favorite artists like Lorde, Sam Fender, and the 1975, as well as artists she loved growing up like Fall Out Boy, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Matt Maeson, early Miley Cyrus, and Bon Iver as major contributors to her current sound.