Like Mint’s latest album feels immensely mature, cohesive, and defined. The German based folk pop artist feels like she’s culminating a journey, finding herself, her voice, and her sound. It’s a reflective piece, the kind that has you empathising with the perspective while harkening back to your own journey and the passage of life. I Wish I Was Awake is all about finding yourself, understanding the path to adulthood, the multitude of mistakes and misconceptions we harbour and our eventual realisation of the totality of it all. Maturity plays front and centre thematically, but it’s in the musicality of Like Mint that all these highs and lows are so vividly and expressively evoked.
Kickstarting the record with the acoustic intermeshing of ‘Ghost Of What We Know’, the poignance of Like Mint’s message is instantly serenading. Her soft and subtle performance amidst the slightly overpowering acoustic feels reserved and pained, but also keenly reflective. The vocal harmony, with a very supple backing performance, makes the chorus hit you that much harder. With songs like Die Angst departing from English into German, there’s a bit of everything. It’s in the record’s middle section that I find my favourite tune. The ever so soft and touching Odd State completely arrests your attention, with Like Mint’s narrative story compelling your every ounce.
In totality, I Wish I Was Awake might be one of the most underappreciated and stellar pieces of folk out in the last couple of years. Like Mint’s vocals are exemplary throughout, but it’s the theme, the poignance of each string, the arcane feeling it possesses, and the heart wrenching melodies sung that grip you at your most fundamental level.