Landskrona, Sweden-based alternative pop artist ME’s newest EP wasn’t originally meant to be one. The single track that she had planned grew to become the wider narrative we get in good guy / i’m sorry.

By Graeme Smith

Pop is a genre that is narrow in a commercial sense but incredibly broad when you take a wider view. In the vastness of the music industry, plenty of experimentation bubbles under the surface and that’s what we get from ME, who wears her individuality and uniqueness as a badge of honour, as she should.

Good guy / i’m sorry consists of four tracks that seamlessly blend into one another. It starts with an ambient intro with raindrops, ticking clocks and captured audio from the TV show Friends. As it progresses, the tone grows darker and we’re set up for a tense tale of heartbreak.

Good guy (a distorted voice memo) is the very literal title of track two, and there’s a rawness and visceral feel to the low quality recording that really works. ME’s soulful vocals pairs nicely with the ambient sounds to create a kind of dreamscape.

I’m sorry delves deeper into the EP’s narrative. It’s fully polished in terms of production but the lyrics stay raw. They paint a picture of the pain and regret that comes in the immediate wake of the end of a relationship.

A short outro then rounds things off in the form of a coda, reintroducing elements of i’m sorry and the ambient sounds that we’ve been treated to before.

Despite its narrative of heartbreak, it’s clear that ME gained a lot of joy from the composition of this EP. The story is personal, but so is how she’s presented it, which does feel truly like nothing I’ve heard before. It’s exactly the kind of boldness we get from this EP that the pop world needs, and ME has realised the collection beautifully with the help of producer Mario Dri.

You can listen to the whole of good guy / i’m sorry below.