Matilda Mann Because I Wanted You to Know review: Unhurried, breezy, and wise beyond its years

The 20-year-old has a natural knack for storytelling

(Theo Batterham)

Gorgeously light and airy, Matilda Mann’s latest EP flits smoothly between heartbreak and bubblegum escapism. Lyrics take centre stage, but Mann’s vocals feel more like a breath of cloud floating over each track, buoyed by understated production and honeyed guitar.

There’s a warm, easy charm to the songwriting, brought to life by the 20-year-old’s natural knack for storytelling. The teenage tropes of heartbreak are all there, but fizz with wit and the urgency of being young. Japan was written as a tongue-in-cheek response to Gossip Girl; Robbed in a quick flash of sadness as she sat on her bed aged just 18. Happy Anniversary Stranger, meanwhile, is an all-too-relatable ode to a secret infatuation at the bus stop. This rawness and simplicity really shapes the record, leaving it somewhere between bedroom pop and wry, Laura Marling-esque folk: unhurried, breezy, and wise beyond its years.

Production feels completely stripped back, particularly in the case of Robbed, which begins as nothing more than a slow crackle and muted birdsong. Japan is another pleasingly unpolished, lo-fi pick, which floats along smoothly on waves of acoustic guitar. Paper Mache World is the rockier addition to the mix, closing the record on an ever-so-slightly grittier note that’s still tonally in keeping with the rest of the album.

That minimal production leaves plenty of space for Mann’s delightful vocals, which fill the corners of each track like a whiff of smoke in an empty room. Soft but assured, her delivery carries the weight of every song, tying the threads of the album together. Mann’s voice, feather-light but with a satisfying catch of breathiness, could be likened to young contemporaries such as Billie Eilish or Phoebe Bridgers - only with a touch more west London in the mix. And with two excellent EPs now under her belt, who knows where she’ll go from there.