Mareike Xiadani’s debut single, ‘Heavy Feet’, spills through your speakers as though Blondie wandered into a parallel universe where everything became a little more polyphonic, right down to the guitar riffs. Saturated, wavy and hyper-harmonised, the German-born, Mexico-raised artist’s indie pop single wears its Euro-pop nostalgia beneath a sun-kissed glaze, inviting you into a semi-lucid dream of melodic abstraction.
Jangly guitars saunter alongside the softened contours of her vocals, which seem to multiply through the production until the melody acquires an almost liquid quality. ‘Hypnotic’ barely scratches the surface of Heavy Feet as it disorients you through its progressions, leaving little room for sharp edges, while the buoyant guitar phrases keep the song tethered to nineties alternative pop. It’s a distinctly glossy interpretation of that lineage, with its sweetness stretched into a slightly surreal register.
That dreamlike quality suits an artist who has spent years telling stories across different mediums, from short fiction to screenwriting and audiovisual production. Xiadani approaches songwriting with a fondness for confessional expression and wry humour, a sensibility that sits naturally within the track’s nostalgic pop language.
‘Heavy Feet’ is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast.
