Mollie Elizabeth Tackles The Disappointments Of Adulthood On ‘People Pleaser’
Photo by Sophia Shrank
All the world’s a stage, as Shakespeare once said, and Mollie Elizabeth is putting on her own kind of show with new EP People Pleaser.
The project is full of songs that bring to mind old-school jazz clubs and turn-of-the-century puppet shows, with jangling, saloon-style piano and muted trombones that wouldn’t sound out of place in a production of “Chicago.”
Elizabeth’s lyrics match that old-timey sound as she takes a scalpel to everything from societal pressures, mental health issues, and the ever-present need for financial stability — all delivered with a delicate, trilling vocal style that adds to the theatrical feel of her music.
While “Run Rabbit” is the undisputed hit of the EP (the TikTok hit has racked up over 74 million streams), songs like “Gimme More!” and “Kiss The Ring” show Elizabeth has plenty of major songs in her.
The former track, a doo-wop ode to excess — “Gimme more money! I need more of it!” she shouts — is a standout, with pristine production that fully realizes Elizabeth’s overall sonic vision. Meanwhile, tracks like “Kiss The Ring” and “Bang Bang” explore her mental health struggles with her tongue firmly in cheek.
“She’s unable, she’s unstable,” she sing-songs on “Bang Bang,” declaring herself “barely hanging by a thread” in a manically cheerful tone that shows just how close to going “down the drain” she really is.
On “Kiss The Ring,” Elizabeth turns her past troubles into a braggadocious demand for people to “kneel before me” and “kiss the ring” as payment for all she’s been through. Really, how can you not love a track that opens with the hilarious and heartbreaking question, “Why’d God make me pretty just to drop me in the dirt?”
Elizabeth describes People Pleaser as “the story of entering adulthood as a young woman and realizing that the world you were prepared for is not the world waiting for you” — an apt description for this collection of these witty and wise-beyond-their-years songs.
Listen to People Pleaser below:
