The reason why Mothica stands out from so many of her alt-pop and nu-gen contemporaries is her combination of honesty and vulnerability. If you’re lucky, it might be an ‘either / or’ situation in other cases; McKenzie Ellis, even on her weakest work, has always strived for both. The pinnacle of it was 2024’s Kissing Death, not only in its frank existence among a history of addiction and depression, but for finding a bigger, brighter path out of it. ‘Arrested development’ is a term often tossed around acts like this, but it’s seldom applicable to Mothica. Unlike swathes of others reliant on being shallow characters, Ellis actually feels like a real person.
As such, to read Somewhere In Between as a regression is uncharitable in the extreme. Not only does it ignore the context of relapse and rehabilitation that brought this EP about, it’s just not Ellis’ game as an artist. There just isn’t that mercenary streak about her to backpedal into what ‘worked’ before, at the expense of human growth. Instead, it’s reflective of recovery being a complex, rarely-straightforward journey, doubled up in the way that Ellis delivers these songs. Throughout, there’s a vocal timbre of dejection or even disappointment in herself, for slipping back towards vices previously thought kicked.
From a less-capable artist in the same rough circle, you might get a completely different interpretation of that, likely personified as an ill-defined (and iller-elaborated) ‘demon’. For Ellis, on the other hand, it takes a more parasitic feel, where she’s drained of energy and will. Thus, what seems like a pretty rudimentary, even clichéd lyrical set—a number of references to roses, or the brand-mandated “moth to the flame” on the title track—are bestowed with greater poetic license. Weapon is the closest to something great in this regard—the ease of succumbing to an addictive personality is mundane, but the line “Forgive me for my sins” against a choral backdrop reframes its overall magnitude.
The desired effect comes through in the sound of this EP, described by Ellis as “angry music”. The idea appears to be of raw, untethered Mothica, in a way that alt-pop is just too stringent to allow. And…well, by comparison, it might be. Bring Me The Horizon seems like the broad template, fittingly enough when Ellis’ Can You Feel My Heart? cover makes it in the live set to this day. Really, though, it’s just shorthand for alt-metal that isn’t doing a whole lot on its own. This is ‘Alt-Popper Gets Heavy 101’, maybe even cribbing from someone else’s notes, because the dearth of unique ideas or spins is pretty blatant. The satisfying churn of Evergreen Misery notwithstanding, these aren’t all that memorable or instrumental in pushing the EP forward.
And that leaves Ellis hanging on her own release, seeing that she isn’t totally capable of delivering what’s required in this sound. She’s purposely sounding wilted and insularly human, and it’s hard to reconcile that when belting power is being called for. The title track’s chorus opens with the line “Like a cut that never bleeds”, which wants the kick the door in but peters out too quickly to even get close. Bullet is another one, thanks to a good thrust that’s crying out for a more vociferous vocal performance to accompany it. The worst part is how you know Ellis is trying her damnedest to make this work. None of this appears as some cynical style-grab, and therefore, it falling so short couldn’t have happened to a less-deserving artist.
Thankfully, there’s enough to the production to pull Somewhere In Between back, at least a little. Not to say it’s entirely stellar; there’s nothing even close to as formula-breaking as past cuts like Doomed or The Reaper, and the cloud of alt-metal monochrome does spread far when it hits. Let it dissipate, though, and you’ve got a sound that meets the hollow isolation of its protagonist at the centre. You see it in the spareness of Evergreen Misery, or the chill that permeates across the title track’s moments of quiet, particularly wrapping the EP up with forlorn piano and a distancing layer of reverb. Again, the alt-pop starter kit might pack all of these, but it’s a testament to what a higher class of artistry can deliver.
Still, it should be said that a stopgap EP operating effectively as a diaristic update is not pushing out top-tier Mothica. Kissing Death is yet to be unseated in that regard, not by a decent margin. And yet, none of the gumption that makes you root for Ellis time and time again is gone. In a journey that’s been chronicled to the frank extent that it has, Somewhere In Between has the benefit of a metastasising viewpoint, growing in front of and with its listeners. That’s not the norm for alt-pop that often pays fealty to genuineness without backing it up. Ellis is not one of those performers; even in shakier creative spots, the human presence always—always—helps. On the newest step with hopefully plenty more to come, you can’t ask for more than that.
For fans of: Bring Me The Horizon, PVRIS, ZAND
‘Somewhere In Between’ by Mothica is released on 20th February on Sharptone Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
