The Scandinavian singer began her showcase of immense talent uttering the beautifully delicate line of “I’m like porcelain”, hauntingly cold, yet scorching hot to the touch. On her first EP, Stay Off My Mind, it’s upsetting to say that SKOTT’s music is boring.
Released, January 12th 2018, Sony Music. 
Stay Off My Mind when listened to shuffled together with SKOTT’s previous releases makes perfect sense. On its own, the EP is simply nothing to be excited about. SKOTT’s attraction has been the inventiveness and constraint that her style has possessed, while being completely wild and beautiful. Porcelain, delicate yet deadly to the touch; Wolf, possessing such unrivalled sophistication that St. Vincent and Florence would have done right to take note; Amelia with her thunderous cries and cult chanting drones, the list goes on for another 3 singles. Remain, a non EP single, was then the first sign that what SKOTT was stepping into wasn’t going to be anything to raise an eyebrow for.
In The Mood is the EP’s only somewhat strong track, appearing as the faded remnants of SKOTT’s artistic past, still vibrant with colour, yet now covered in manufactured nonsense, that spans from what sounds like an awful rehash of Peter Bjorn and John’s Young Folks on the title track, to the Lana Del Rey style of boring seduction on Russian Soul, closing with This Vibe, as consistently dull as the vibe throughout this 15 minute EP.
It’s upsetting to bear witness to such an unequivocal mistake from a still potentially magnificent artist. SKOTT’s vocals are still as stunning as ever, her vocal display is undeniable and always a joy to hear, but on Stay Off My Mind, her vocals aren’t upstaged, but rather brought down by below mediocre standards. It’s a bump in the road met by a road closed ahead sign. Some skilled manoeuvring needs to occur for SKOTT to get back on track to unleashing her skills as an artist rather than simply making below standard pop that has enough appeal to delight those who don’t care about music as long as “it has a good beat”.
velvetindependent.com 