In the songs on Los Angeles singer-songwriter Akira Galaxy’s debut EP What’s Inside You, pure and unfiltered emotional connection is everything. In their romantic vortexes, nothing seems to be in question, and consummate mutual understanding feels possible. Eventually, though, difficult moments throw deeper truths into relief, exposing the ways in which the narrators have been misled. Akira writes soulful and atmospheric alternative pop songs about being lost in these kinds of states, inserting bittersweet or acidic asides.
With divergent touchstones like Radiohead, Cocteau Twins (she covers Elizabeth Fraser’s Massive Attack collaboration “Teardrop”), and Fleetwood Mac, What’s Inside You covers a great deal of musical as well as spiritual territory across its five songs. Ecstatic but emotionally unsparing, immediate and catchy but sophisticated, the EP announces an artist eager to explore divergent ideas and already invested with a fully formed songwriting voice.