It probably goes without saying at this point that one of my favourite records of 2025 so far is undoubtedly Saya Gray's SAYA. For that album, she really tempered the far-flung experimentalism of some of her older work, purposefully as a challenge to herself to fit the pop form, but didn't lose any of her definitive innovation in the process. It feels like Montreal's Magi Merlin is doing some mirror-image wizardry in her own work right now.
On her surprise-released new EP, A Weird Little Dog, the artist expands upon the horizons she began broadening with the 2024 double single, "Bip" and "9volt." That's not to say that Merlin hasn't always fearlessly embraced dipping her toes into the waters of new genres, bringing these influences into her shapeshifting mélange with a naturalized ease; these four tracks somehow land somewhere in between the shiny, refined hip-pop craft of 2022's Pissed Black Girl and the woozy alt-R&B haze of 2021's Drug Music.
While A Weird Little Dog may lean more toward the latter tempo-wise, there's still uncharted territory to be found in this middle ground of Merlin's previous releases. With everything she does, there's a new synthesis of the myriad elements that make up the lexicon of what a Magi Merlin song can be. From the the new creases in the blank cardstock of experience where every piece of music begins, she can thrillingly fold any origami shape you can imagine.
"It feels like a new start, an exercise in having faith in the listener and trusting them to be able to take time and even see themselves in this work," Merlin said of the project in a press release — a sentiment reinforced in the title of the closing track: "see!igetit."