Critic's evaluation
It comes two months after his last release. The Things I Left Unsaid, the fourth EP in Jamie Miller's career, was recorded at Adam Yaron's studio and NRG Studios, located in Los Angeles and North Hollywood, both in the United States.
Amid squeaks and a curiously esoteric sonar, a high-pitched, slightly velvety voice appears in a voice message leaving a message of motivation, pride and empowerment. At the end, the audio gives way for low, icy piano notes to be uttered in a spaced-out manner, providing a growing sense of drama to the melancholy scenario. Between melismas that introduce R&B scraps into the song, a bittersweet voice emerges in a mid-tempo cadence. It's Jamie Miller experimenting with hoarse falsetto as she gives Intro its intense and painful ingredient, a track of drastic lyricism in which the character verbalizes not knowing how to be happy. Through bad habits and a cutting need to overcome, the individual finds himself in the reality of self-denial for the sake of another who hasn't reciprocated. The weariness of pretense meets the search for self-love. And finding the true needs of the 'I' is at the heart of Intro.
The gloomy, mournful and melodramatic impetus continues on the new horizon. In the company of that same sensitive artifice provided by the piano, the song, in the midst of Miller's tearful interpretation, has harmonic bursts from a grandiose chorus that makes the character's suffocating and desperate pains an entirely cannibalistic truth, but no stronger than the will to overcome. No Matter What's trump card lies precisely in the fact that it is a motivational piece, a product that comes close to the listener's reality and breaks down the artist-audience barrier. As a song that deals with depression encouraged by fear and insecurity, it communicates, loud and clear, that even in the most painful moments, no one is alone. Unconditional love, persistence and companionship will always break through the fortress of loneliness.
It's like observing the world from inside an acrylic bubble. Between past and present, the landscape outside displays experiences, situations and dialogues like a maximized unconscious. Thus, nostalgia dominates every pore of the listener while the character in Empty Room screams, wails and cries at the memories of a great past and the plans for a non-existent tomorrow. The unspoken words, the unfulfilled desires. Regret, guilt. Empty Room is the symptom of memory affecting an individual soaked in desolation and the pain of a broken heart.
With a slightly livelier feel due to the guitar's sonar, the song takes on a slightly sunny atmosphere. Now inserting indie rock in the midst of melodramatic and tearful pop, Miller makes Rooting For You, a track with subtle fusions of alternative rock, an interesting point of view on the end of a relationship. In Rooting For You, which acts as a kind of sequel to Empty Room, Miller talks about the feeling of belittlement associated with a lack of appreciation. Although it's adorned with a cheerfully bubbly chorus, the song speaks of disappointment, a form of betrayal of essence, but also of the beauty of resilience, superiority and the ability to be compassionate.
It's rainy, but also transcendental. Just as dramatic as No Matter What and, to a lesser extent, Intro, Maybe Next Time reaffirms and adds to the melodic minimalism of The Things I Left Unsaid, while continuing with a dialog steeped in the suffering caused by the breakdown of a relationship. With feelings of incompetence, disappointment, guilt and longing all mixed together in a single boiling cauldron, Maybe Next Time is the desire not to repeat the same mistakes, to overcome oneself and, at least in one's own unconscious, to perceive oneself as better and stronger.
Soft, repetitive and hypnotic, the linear melody creates a synthetic softness that comforts the listener. Although dramatic, Only Place recreates the feat of Rooting For You and provides a curious lyrical-melodic antithesis, because in the midst of suffering, there is captivation. Curiously and surprisingly, however, in Only Place the listener doesn't find Jamie Miller punishing himself or finding answers within himself to encourage the possibility of a future return to love. Here, Miller comes across as empowered, aware and sure of his will. It's no wonder that the act of breaking up comes from him. An act motivated by weariness at the toxic behavior of the other person. That's why Only Place is the most significant song on the album.
Despite having reached the age of 26, Jamie Miller's The Things I Left Unsaid is an EP about venting all the emotions that have boiled over from relationship experiences. A work in which she exhorts guilt, disappointment, desolation, anger and depression in the same cauldron in the search for self-worth.
No wonder that of the six songs that make up this work, the most significant are No Matter What and Only Place. After all, while in the former the singer finds himself in the deepest sadness of rejection, in the latter it is he who dictates the rules out of weariness at the sensation of belittlement and the absence of reciprocity.
Even with a minimalist synthetic structure, Miller manages to bring a curious range of rhythms to his teen-based EP. With the support of Matthew Huber, The Things I Left Unsaid moves between indie rock, alternative rock and pop in such a way as to create atmospheres ranging from tearfully intimate to joyful and sunny.
Synthesizing all this anguish were producers Colin Foote, Alex Borel and Adam Yaron. The professionals, like good directors, captured the heartbreaking essence of the EP and made sure that each song spoke to each other in some way, whether it was through energy or the lyricism itself.
Released on 10/04/2023 via BMG, The Things I Left Unsaid is the quest of a passionate individual for self-worth and self-respect. An intense individual, passionate and painfully desperate to have his heart accepted by someone else who knows how to accept, enjoy and reciprocate all the affection and love that can be taken from him.
