Follow the Cyborg

Though Miss Grits releases reflect Margaret Sohns rapid growth as a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, they share similar conceptual arcs. Whether challenging rom-com ideals on the Talk Talk EP or confronting racial prejudice -- internal as well as external -- on the Impostor EP, the characters in Miss Grit songs assert themselves with a striking mix of calmness and frustration. Sohns vocals may be soothing, but their guitars and synths are seething. On their debut album, Miss Grit questions norms more artfully than ever. Revolving around an artificial intelligence that liberates itself from its human creator, Follow the Cyborg is steeped in allusions to works ranging from Jia Tolentinos namesake essay to films such as Ex Machina, Her, and the work of Satoshi Kon, whose classic thriller Perfect Blue provides the title for the sweeping, slightly ominous opening track that hints at the albums ambitions. Befitting Cyborgs concept, Sohn brings more clarity to their music, most notably in the steadily calibrated rhythms that drive each track. On "Nothings Wrong"s electro psych-pop, the dreamily bobbing beat almost disguises observations like "Ill normalize whats going on/So I wont have to make things right" before floating away. Like St. Vincent (one of Sohns key influences), Miss Grit excels at using detachment to create subtle but palpable tension: "The End"s rebellion masquerades as a string-driven lullaby, stretching out the suspense until a massive beat shatters the songs constraints. Miss Grits increasingly sophisticated songwriting cleverly expresses the blurring boundaries between the real and virtual worlds, and the growing awareness -- and rejection -- of being shaped by outside input, whether its a data set or societal expectations. The use of a stomping, sing-along chorus to decry the conformity of social media on "Lain (Phone Clone)" delivers some well-played irony; elsewhere, Sohns lyrics are as eloquent as they are economical. "Bore new/Everything is see-through/Confused/They might see theyre like you," they sing with silvery, inhuman perfection on "Like You," distilling a techno-emotional crisis into a handful of words. Miss Grits guitar still acts as a musical lightning rod on "Your Eyes are Mine," where the fractured riff foreshadows the inevitable rift between the AI and its creator, but the albums largely electronic palette adds more exciting dimensions to Miss Grits music. "Follow the Cyborg"s fusion of Blade Runner-esque arpeggios and saxophones gives a deceptively slick veneer to Miss Grits reflections on performing a persona in a world with unmeetable demands; draped in whistling and warping synths, the Korean-language version of the song that follows is just as haunting in an entirely different way. Follow the Cyborgs emotions are more complex and more present than in Sohns previous work, particularly on the epilogue "Syncing," which folds in lyrics from the albums other songs as it pulls away, offering closure as well as the feeling that theres no going back. With all the possibilities Enter the Cyborg reveals, theres no going back for Miss Grits music, either. ~ Heather Phares