Mallrat’s 'Light hit my face like a straight right': A Daydream in Motion

The first time you press play, it doesn’t feel like sound. It feels like sunlight slanting through a moving train window, like the weightless in-between of late afternoons and early evenings. Mallrat doesn’t just make music - she builds a feeling, a place you step into, a soft-focus world where nostalgia hums beneath the surface and the ordinary becomes something sacred.

With 'Light Hit My Face Like a Straight Right', she invites us into that world again, but this time it’s softer, sadder, more sprawling. The album carries the weight of memory and reflection, infused with the kind of songwriting that feels effortless but lingers long after the music fades. There is a quiet power in these songs, a way they fold into your subconscious, as if they’ve always been there, waiting for you to notice them.

At the core of this record is a deep, resounding sense of love and loss. 'Horses' is the heart of it all, a song that aches with tenderness and vulnerability. Written before the passing of her sister, Liv, it now carries an even deeper emotional weight. It’s a conversation across time, a song that seems to hover between the past and the present, refusing to let go. Mallrat’s vocals are delicate, almost ghostly, floating over a minimal arrangement that leaves space for the emotion to breathe. It’s not just a song - it’s a moment, a feeling, a fragile connection that exists between this world and the next.

And then there’s 'Pavement', a track that feels like running your hand along the rooftops of a familiar city. It’s all golden haze and echoing melodies, a perfect encapsulation of what she does best: making small moments feel like magic. She has always seen the world through a different lens, one where neon signs flicker with quiet meaning, where the hum of streetlights sounds like a chorus. And she lets us see it too.

Sonically, 'Light Hit My Face Like a Straight Right' expands Mallrat’s universe, placing her in a dreamlike space between Clairo, Lorde, and early Lana Del Rey. The hushed, intimate quality of her vocals recalls Clairo’s 'Immunity' era, while the shimmering, celestial production nods to Lorde’s 'Melodrama'. At times, her storytelling even channels the delicate poetry of Phoebe Bridgers - subtle but devastating in its delivery. But rather than mirroring any single influence, Mallrat fuses these elements into something distinctly her own: music that feels like a memory, like a warm breeze through a childhood home.

One of the album’s strongest aspects is its lyrical depth. Mallrat has a way of taking the simplest observations and turning them into something profound. Take 'Surprise Me', a late-album gem where she sings: "You said, 'Meet me by the water at the same time every year' / But the tide, it moves like honey, and the light don’t feel the same here".

It’s a quiet heartbreak—an image of someone waiting for something that will never come in the way they expect it to. The ocean, often a symbol of constancy, is suddenly unpredictable, moving in slow, syrupy waves, distorting time and place. It’s the kind of writing that sneaks up on you, revealing new meanings with every listen.

Another standout, 'Sleep Talking', plays with surrealism and emotional detachment: "You told me you loved me while you were sleeping / I didn’t say it back, but I still heard you breathing."

There’s a dreamlike distance in those lines, as if love and connection exist on two separate planes. She never dismisses the feeling entirely, but she doesn’t fully engage with it either. It’s that space between reality and imagination that Mallrat thrives in, where emotions flicker like candlelight; faint, beautiful, and just out of reach.

The production on 'Light Hit My Face Like a Straight Right' expands Mallrat’s sonic landscape while still keeping her signature intimacy intact. Where her earlier work had a lo-fi bedroom-pop charm, this album is more layered, more atmospheric. There are moments of dreamlike electronica, moments where indie pop collides with something celestial. But even as the soundscape widens, her voice remains at the center with its soft, ethereal, and hypnotic aura.

This album is not about reaching for something grander, it’s about finding beauty in what’s already there. It’s about light hitting the right angle, a lyric catching in your throat, the way a voice can sound like a memory and a promise at the same time.

Ellie McWilliam

@elliemcwilliam

Image: Sammy-Jo Lang-Waite

 

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