Juliet Ivy Shrinks Down Our Greatest Fears in Polished Sophomore EP 'tiny but scary'
Photo: Lauren Harris
Juliet Ivy is an artist who’s kept me curious about what she’ll do next since her surface-smashing 2023 release playpen. She makes music like she’s making a quilt, stitching together unexpected textiles of folk and indie pop into one seamless story. Ivy was born and bred in New York, perhaps contributing to why her music is so sure of itself for her age. Her freshly released sophomore EP tiny but scary bares new levels of soul as Ivy navigates intimate vignettes of insecurity, femininity, and childlike curiosity through it all.
tiny but scary is a coming-of-age collection that captures the phenomenon of feeling like a kid against the wild expanse of adult reality. It takes us inside Ivy’s relationship with her parents and how growing up has made her see them as human too. It’s a side we don’t don’t often see expressed in songwriting, but a universal truth just the same; no matter how old you get, sometimes you just need to call your mom.
Especially present on her visceral third track “kid,” Ivy writes about how every parent was once a child too. Over saccharine acoustics and subtle percussion, Ivy paints a picture of a nurturing, explorative childhood that lingers through the years. She croons, “I love being your kid / You know you’re my favorite / You’ve given me the gift of getting to exist.” tiny but scary has a rare capability to meet existentialism with tenderness, propelling us deeper inside Ivy’s intellectual yet optimistic psyche.
tiny but scary is tiny (five tracks) and scary because of the complexities Ivy is able to pack into such a fleeting collection. One of the biggest themes of the project is girlhood. In “sweet dreams,” she captures the impounding weight of the present that comes with being a young woman. Whether it’s the intense heartbreak of a fight with your best friend or the toxic thought patterns that can make a single moment feel like the world is falling apart, Ivy doesn’t shy away from any of it.
Her closing track “girl talk” sees far beyond the scope of “sweet dreams” and looks at femininity from a generational, collective standpoint. Ivy melts down the impossible standards and crushing insecurities of girlhood into a simple, “That’s just girl talk.” Her listeners have come to expect this level of clever irony on all her records because that’s the impressively high bar Ivy has set for herself. Don’t be fooled by the title, tiny but scary is a monumental cornerstone in Juliet Ivy’s ever-evolving career as an artist.
Listen to tiny but scary below:
