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Grimy goods

Music artists you should know: Nicki Walters

"This year, Walters released two new singles: “I Wish I Was Better” and “Roommate.”Here, the rawness of their lyricism seeps into their sound, creating a tangle of jutting textures and coarse rhythms that illuminate the turmoil at their center. One wrestles with the frustrating difficulties of opening up to someone else, while the other articulates with gut-wrenching clarity the particular pain that comes with the parents of the woman they love refusing to acknowledge their relationship.

Even just a shuffle through their discography is enough to prove Walters partially right—this is our favorite alt-folk artist that we have heard of—and easily the most original and compelling to emerge in recent years. When that debut album finally arrives, we’re confident it’ll only place them further on the radar of listeners who are also fans of bands like super-group boygenius. For now, keep their music exactly where it should be, in your ears and close to your heart." - Steven Ward (Grimy Goods)

The Curio Cabinet

NICKI WALTERS TACKLES MENTAL HEALTH AND IDENTITY THROUGH ALT-FOLK SOUND

Their most vulnerable track on the record is “again/carpet swimming.” It’s unsettling and begins with Walters counting off numbers that layer over each other in an overwhelming mess. 

“I knew this would happen/ I can’t get over anything,” Walters sings amid the swirling chaos. Time picks up, then slows as their voice echoes in electronic distortion. “That song is this slew of dissociating, and it feels like a very random song to me,” said Walters. “It’s just this slew of emotion that I just had one day … It’s a lot. Even now, I don’t know if I fully understand it, but it felt good to get out.”

“mouthful of roses” traverses mental health, social anxiety and self-doubt. Walters ponders how they are perceived and what other people think. Writing all of those emotions down is a form of therapy. 

“I would probably lose my mind if I didn’t have this kind of outlet,” they said. - Maddie Browning