Wyldest + Millie Kirkpatrick, Lone Mesa

There aren’t many records you can honestly describe as life-changing. The Universe Is Loading is precisely that. The product of a period of momentous personal upheaval, Wyldest’s fourth album examines the world on a macro and micro level, pairing existential probing with intensely intimate reflections, and revealing an artist born anew.

The truth is, we’ve never really known Zoë Mead – the woman behind Wyldest – until now. Ever since her debut, 2019’s Dream Chaos, the London-based singer-songwriter has largely let her music speak for itself, generously leaving space for listeners to imbue with their own meaning. On 2021’s self-produced follow-up Monthly Friend, she discussed the physicality of womanhood against a sonic backdrop of tender dream-pop. For 2022’s cinematic Feed The Flowers Nightmares, she explored the idea of losing yourself and starting over, while switching up her creative process, collaborating with Luciano Rossi (Idlewild, Dama Scout) and taking influence from the compositional work of Mica Levi, Jon Brion and Jonny Greenwood.

Mead founded Wyldest in 2016, bringing in two musician friends to help her maintain the façade of the project as a band. Looking back, she puts this concealment down to imposter syndrome and feeling isolated amidst a wave of hyped, female-fronted outfits. The truth is, Wyldest is – and always has been – a solo endeavour, and when she made that official circa Monthly Friend, a weight was lifted artistically.