The press talk surrounding Mikal Cronin’s forthcoming second album MCII has all been about how the album is inspired by all the “problems and situations [he’s] been working through” since his first album, and with it comes a little bit of tentativeness. This is shown in the chorus to “Shout It Out”: “should I shout it out? / should I let it go? / do I need to know what I’m waiting for?” It’s quite a different approach than the track that introduced most of us to him where he brazenly cried, “I don’t want apathy / I don’t want empathy / I don’t want everything / I don’t want anything.” This isn’t the only thing that’s changed in Cronin’s approach; the song’s verses have a clean indie-pop leaning, eschewing the guitar haze that clouded all of his debut, and even when some fuzz comes in on the chorus it doesn’t enshroud the song, instead staying back and letting the power-pop double tracked vocals take centre stage. It’s not what we might have expected from Cronin, but it’s undoubtedly an ear-worm and has a sound that makes more sense on his new home, Merge, where he’ll have the opportunity to increase his reach, and songs like “Shout It Out” are certainly going to help in that aspect too.
MCII is out May 7th via Merge
