Through the Roof, the debut EP by Midtown Vice, is a raw, genre-blending sonic trip that balances the ethereal with the unsettling, the emotional with the abstract. The six-track collection, recorded entirely in a modest bedroom studio in northern New Jersey, showcases the multi-dimensional artistry of John Mueller, the one-man force behind the project. With just two mics, a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, and Logic Pro, Mueller builds immersive, surreal, and emotionally fraught worlds, relying on dreamy guitar lines, spacy synths, and cryptic yet heartfelt lyricism to do the heavy lifting.
The EP kicks off with โRecord Setter,โ where the static fuzz of a TV flickers into acoustic strums and a feather-light vocal that comes both detached and painfully personal. The lyrics, โFor five minutes straight I stayed in the present moment / Iโd say that right there is a fucking record setter,โ cut with a funny and devastating clarity, a stream-of-consciousness confession wrapped in warmth and ambient haze. Midtown Vice takes melancholy without melodrama, inviting listeners into a headspace as emotional or mental clutter piles up quietly.
Midway through, โLemon Headโ offers an almost celestial detour. Its clean, ringing guitar tones and echoing vocal delivery evoke a dreamlike isolation. The song has lines like, โWith you as my muse and a head full of tar / Rancid mist crawling down my throatโ that blur romance, disillusionment, and memory into a psychedelic fog.
By the time we reach โInside of a Hole,โ the EP has fully slipped its genre constraints. Engine revs, car horns, laughter, and warped textures form a sonic breakdown, culminating in an eerie burst and almost a gritty vinyl-like spiraling scratch. This apocalyptic yet intentional song is like the sound of spiraling thought.
The debut Through the Roof is a surreal, intimate, and unfiltered plunge into the psyche of an artist unafraid to challenge how we hear, feel, and interpret music. Check it out on Spotify.
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Photo credits: Ama Wick
Review by: Naomi Joan