My Idea – CRY MFER

My Idea write polished indie pop songs, then remove the polish and replace it with panic. The duo is made up of Lily Konigsberg (of Palberta) and Nate Amos (of Water From Your Eyes), who met while Konigsberg was looking for a producer for her 2021 solo record. They hit it off, and quickly became entangled as songwriters. Their relationship went from professional, to personal, to complicated. CRY MFER documents this intense early relationship through songs full of wild ideas and rough drafts. 

Now, the pair are friends who’ve figured out what they mean to each other, but CRY MFER captures the uneasy tension that coloured their early sessions. Its best moments are flippant and intimate, like ‘Breathe You’, a goofy slowjam which masks real feelings with humour and a vocoder. ‘Not Afraid Anymore’ is as bare as you can get – an early demo that leaves in the lyrical flubs and fits of laughter in to bring us into the room.

‘Lily’s Phone’ is a highlight, leaning heavily on Konigsberg’s showmanship and crude pop mastery. ‘I Should Have Never Generated You’ takes on jangle-pop with similar fireworks. Then there’s ‘Popstar’, an addictive track that celebrates the childish impulse of hitting the ‘orchestra hit’ button over and over when faced with any consumer-grade keyboard. What connects all these songs is a hidden honesty lurking just underneath the zany production. 

My Idea have a chemistry that makes it easy to root for them. They have a distinct quality that’s there even when showing their influences, like on the many tracks indebted to Elliott Smith and Alex G (‘Baby I’m the Man’, ‘Pretty You’, ‘Cry Mfer’). Now that the pair are settling into an easy friendship, you hope that this creative partnership has the space to blossom in its own time.