Maria Minerva - I Don’t Wanna Be Discovered (Will Happiness Find Me?)

From sophomore album, Will Happiness Find Me? 

From the album description on mDhVn:

An impressively individualist mix-tape channeling the 360º spectrum of Minerva’s diverse obsessions, Will Happiness Find Me? connects the avant-pop dots between future-shock pirate radio singles, hermetic tone studies, late-night wanderlust lullabies, tape-faded club dee-lights, sampladelic vocal exploratoriums, private-press art pranks and even ambient hip-hop melancholia. Given that most contempo aesthetic arcs ebb from the raw and odd to the polished and accessible, it’s rad and uplifting to hear Minerva swimming so soulfully the other direction.

Exactly.  The sophomore LP is a total mixed bag of tricks, keeping things interesting at every turn.

Another point I’d like to expand upon: I understand many artists record rough tracks early on, maybe only out of a circumstantial inaccessibility to the tools necessary to get that polished sound, then shine it up to get that radio single sound…but it breaks my heart most times (see Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, Nite Jewel to start). 

more production ≠ better recordings     

Certainly some bands thrive on high end production, as I can’t imagine lo-fi Sigur Rós.  Maybe Maria Minerva isn’t a good comparison to my above mentioned disappointments being on Not Not Fun vs. a larger label like Sub Pop, but regardless its refreshing to see an emerging artist experiment with her sound, without making the immediate jump to high end pop polish.

Bravo Maria, sounds fucking great.

Maria Minerva - Will Happiness Find Me? LP is out via Not Not Fun 8/28 and is available from mDhVn here