Julia Michaels released “Inner Monologue Part 1,” her second solo EP, on Jan. 25. The EP has six songs on it.
Michaels is an American singer and songwriter and her song “Issues” previously hit No. 11 on Billboards Hot 100 over a year ago. It talked about mental health and relationships, as does her new EP.
Her previous EP, “Nervous System”, was released back in 2017 and exposed her to her own singing career. “Inner Monologue Part 1” provides new, raw, and real material where Michaels creates a pop-playlist by diving deep into herself and bringing multitudes of emotions to the surface.
The EP begins with “Anxiety, a follow up,” touching more on experiences with mental illness. Selena Gomez is featured in it.
“Into You” talks about a recent breakup where Michaels is trying to avoid seeing an ex-lover. The song repeatedly talks about how she feels like she can’t go to her favorite places in fear she’ll “run right into you.” The third song, “Happy,” dives into this breakup more and Michaels’ desire to be happy. She sings, “Sometimes I think I kill relationships for art”—a painful, powerful phrase that grabs the audience.
“I feel like a lot of creative people do this thing where you feel like you do a lot of things to be inspired,” Michaels said in an interview, “sometimes you’ll pick fights with somebody in order to write about it. Or you’ll do something you wouldn’t normally do just to feel inspired. I’ve definitely been the kind of person to do things like that in the past, just for some exciting lyrical content. I’m not proud of it, but it’s definitely something I’ve done.”
“Deep” talks about insecurities and self-doubt, where she is stuck in her head on whether she is loved by herself and the people around her.
Michaels fifth song, “Apple,” shifts the EP’s mood with a smooth upbeat tempo of an ukulele playing in the background. It contributes a light-hearted song to her EP, where she dreams about the perfect romance.
“What a Time” ends the playlist featuring Niall Horan and reminisces on what might have been between two people. This song is more is a ballad of two voices intertwining to create a warm sound.
Michaels has written other songs such as: “Sorry” for Justin Bieber, “Firestarter” for Demi Lovato, “Barbies” for P!nk, “Miss Moving On” for Fifth Harmony and more. She has also collaborated with other artists such as: Shawn Mendes, Lauv, Maroon 5 and Rita Ora.
Michaels previously opened for Mendes in 2017, Horan in 2018, Maroon 5 in 2018, Keith Urban in 2019 and is currently opening for P!nk on her Beautiful Trauma tour for 2019.
