milet’s visions: Album Review
Why milet's new album tops my list of the best new releases
visions begins with the atmosphere-setting “SEVENTH HEAVEN.” A breezy, tropical vibe accompanies straightforward, flirty lyrics (“Kiss me, come closer… ‘Cause our heaven is here”). milet’s typical dramatic flourishes still find room to shine too: a string layer sneaks its way into the instrumental at one point, and the instrumental in the bridge quiets down as if to hand the spotlight over to her powerful voice.
“Fly High” proves to have been aptly titled. Its ascending structure persists as one instrumental layer after another is added. “Fly High” starts with piano and then adds drums, strings, bells, and more. All the while, milet sings about a sense of security: “I'm not scared 'cause I know you're with me.”
milet takes charge on the next two tracks, “Outsider” and “checkmate.” “Shut up, you’re asking too much questions / And you make my head explode,” she complains on “Outsider,” as a dramatic piano-and-strings combination builds up to a climactic chorus about “Feeling so much stronger.” At this point, milet and her music exude ambition. She feigns sympathy for her lover, since she has moved on from their relationship and her lover clearly hasn’t yet (“Time to say goodbye / Sorry, you’re late”). milet now voices concerns about how much she relies on her lover for her sense of security, and she seems committed to finding that security within herself: “My ambitions are too high / You should’ve known that ‘cause… [N]obody take my place.”
“checkmate” has a similar energy to “Outsider,” with milet outright saying, “It’s 4AM / You must be obsessed with me.” Interestingly, on “checkmate,” milet sounds both stronger and prouder of herself and slides away from the goal of feeling that way: “You’re hurting me so much / You still want me so bad / But I know everything / I’m your everything” (emphasis added). She reiterates her lover is the one still pining after her and relying on her to feel joy and security, but she prefaces this with an acknowledgement that this love is still “hurting [her] so bad.”
In “Who I Am,” the strings, bass drum, piano, and guitars all suddenly hush during the bridge, as if taking a moment to soak in milet’s remarkable voice as she repeats, “You make me strong enough to face my fears / No matter what they say, I choose to believe / You make me strong enough to face my fears.” The “I choose to believe” lyric can be read differently depending on if it is seen as a preface or a follow-up comment. “You make me strong enough to face my fears / No matter what they say, I choose to believe” sounds like two independent thoughts, but “No matter what they say, I choose to believe / You make me strong enough to face my fears” makes it sound like milet knows deep down her sense of reliance on her lover to feel strong is flawed. She is convincing herself of her lover’s necessity in her life story, but she knows deep down this is just a way of evading embracing her role as the main character.
“Who I Am” leaves a profound impact both sonically and lyrically, as does the following song, a breathtaking ballad called “Loved By You.” milet can no longer put on a happy face and pretend her lover loves her more than vice versa. Not only does she explicitly say so (“I am the one who loved the most”), but it translates through the song’s sound. She makes this admission backed by a single piano and with a raw, pained delivery. All of the literal bells and whistles from earlier songs on visions are gone as she faces reality. The pain in her voice and relatively lonely instrumental leave listeners feeling the weight of her words and appreciating the emotional effort it has taken to reach this point of acceptance. She still hopes for “Someone [to] tell [her] it will be alright,” but she no longer asks her lover to be that voice of reassurance. In “Loved By You,” her signature bite is not entirely gone but has clearly softened, as she achingly ends saying, “Damn… We lost / We’re alone.”
The strings and percussion on visions reach their crescendo on “On the Edge,” where milet is adamant she “won’t shed no tears.” The bridge in this song is indescribably incredible and allows for this song to speak volumes even with just the instrumental component.
On “Shed a light,” milet’s high note reverberates across anthemic drums. Echos and cymbals play her off after she finishes her reassuring message: “Whenever wherever / I'm by your side / I'm by your darkness.” The “your” is ambiguous, but it can be reasonably assumed milet is talking to herself. She saw how miscalculated it was to rely solely on others to feel sure of herself. Since the last time she did this ended so painfully, milet has now decided to just be the voice of reassurance for which she has been searching.
“Kaikou” is one of the more relatively stripped songs on the album, but there is clearly more than meets the ear at first listen. A voice behind milet’s murmurs throughout it, as if her former love is a ghost she cannot escape. This song has a moment when the sound travels from staying in just one earbud to just the other one, giving the song movement, a sort of life to it. The song sways from one direction to the next as milet turns over a sense of disbelief “that you’re gone” in her mind.
“jam” provides a few minutes of levity and a mental reprieve for milet. She focuses on looking back on positive memories and insists she is doing well now. The song ends similar to the way “Loved By You” does. The latter ends with milet’s pained voice sounding like it is coming out of a phone’s receiver. That vocal filter returns to end “jam,” only this time, the “voicemail” takes on a refreshed and upbeat tone. However, like a spirit following her everywhere, a voice of doubt that milet can stay strong on her own lingers: it says “It’s never too late” to return to her former flame.
After the brief respite, milet shows a new level of clarity surrounding this relationship and a greater sense of sureness in the need to leave it behind her. In “Come Here (Session1),” she acknowledges their toxicity and decides to cut this lover off completely: “I don’t want to see your face / I don’t want to hear your name.” This stunning piano ballad is another example of milet balancing raw heartbreak with a slowly-building sense of self-worth: “You could never handle me.” There is a heavy moment of silence post-chorus that adds extra emotional weight to the song.
“Come Here (Session1)” seamlessly transitions into “The Hardest,” another piano ballad. She ends this song sounding extra fragile, yet also sounding determined to finish the song with every last bit of emotional strength in her. Her insecurities pipe up throughout it (“If you’re gonna leave me, my love has no meaning”), but she finishes undeterred.
Now that milet has bared her soul and released some pent-up emotions, she returns to a more positive place emotionally on “Wake Me Up.” This guitar-heavy song leads into “Ordinary days,” which uses a piano and trumpets, among other instruments, to give the song an unexpected excitement and buoyancy. In both songs, milet’s messages can be interpreted in several ways. She could be running back into the arms of her past love, consequences be damned. She could be singing about someone new in her life who is much less emotionally draining than her previous love. She could also be singing to herself, having learned to enjoy her own company. Regardless of the subject, both songs convey messages that are relatable in their ambiguity. milet’s conflicted emotional states are a testament to her music’s honesty. She refuses to sing about a cut-and-dry relationship timeline, since that is simply not how relationships work.
“One Reason” packages up all the messy emotions processed and separated from one another throughout visions. Feelings of wistfulness, sorrow, shame, anger, fear, loss, love, passion, desire, confidence, self-worth, insecurities… all sorts of contradictions have now been tangled up into a ball once again. The instrumentals add to this message; it sounds as if all the instruments from each of the previous songs have decided to return for the grand finale.
Arguably, the most summative lyric on “One Reason” is “It’s time to give up / But I just don’t wanna.” At the end of the day, no matter how much milet tosses and turns her feelings over in her mind, none of it seems to matter compared to one strand in that tangled ball of emotions: love. “There’s one reason to love / A million reasons to leave,” she admits, but the power of love on its own might outweigh everything else. Her love for someone is muddied and brought into question repeatedly, but it remains present and her driving decision-maker. “No, I won’t let you go,” she decides. Then, there is a very heavy silence. The album appears to have ended.
All of a sudden, all the sounds resurface for another round of the chorus, a fitting end to this story of unpredictable, oftentimes blind love.
Is visions an ode to the process of finding oneself? Is it simply about a relationship after its honeymoon period has ended? Is it a bit of both? These questions intentionally remain unanswered. There are multiple ways any element of a song can be interpreted, from what feeling the inclusion of a certain instrument is supposed to convey to what a lyric means. milet takes full advantage of this room for interpretation. She makes each of her songs feel full and complex, but also gives each song a general direction. She knows how to use moments of silence, instrumental layers, ad libs, lyrics, and tones to craft weighty songs, but she leaves the question as to why listeners feel the weightiness of her songs unanswered. There can be disagreements about the meaning of “Loved By You,” for example, but all listeners can feel moved and sad while listening to it. The same goes for lighter songs: “jam” invokes feelings of nostalgia regardless of who or what listeners think that nostalgia is directed towards. milet knows how to tell stories purposefully and meticulously, in ways that are astounding for both their sonic richness and fulfillment of music’s purpose. Music is all about audiences making meaning out of the material they are given, and milet gives listeners a template for doing just that. Creating this template effectively is easier said than done; it takes skill to provoke the desired, lasting feelings in listeners.
A different way to summarize milet’s appeal: she makes music that embraces multifaceted feelings and shows off her charming, unpredictable personality. After all, the first sentence in visions is “What are you waiting for?” The last sentence in visions: “[Y]ou’ll never know.” Again, the undefined “you” is a trademark of hers, keeping the audience invested in her stories and ready to define that “you” as it pertains to their own lives.
There is a reason why 17 Carat K-Pop write-up after 17 Carat K-Pop write-up has praised milet’s musicianship. She is truly an astonishing artist with a raw, emotional vocal delivery and songs infused with personality and a mix of confidence and vulnerability. Her work is layered, intriguing, and instrumentally rich, and there is no better testament to her talent than visions.
Listen to milet’s new album here, and read about the rest of my “Best of February” picks below!
