Ider - Emotional Education

The Guardian 80

(Glassnote)

Ider’s Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville did not go to the Brit school. And yet this duo have produced a debut album full of world-class, homegrown pop. No vast committees of co-writers appear on these credits: this is a record in which two twentysomething women nail the millennial experience with sensitivity and sass, though they do have the added production nous of Rodaidh McDonald (the xx, Sampha) and MyRiot (London Grammar).

These 11 songs ping confidently around the post-genre electro-pop landscape. Throughout, R&B dynamics and folk harmonies are Ider’s two most consistent reference points. A bit like First Aid Kit, Markwick and Somerville frequently merge themselves into a composite third voice – that’s “Ider”. And while Let’s Eat Grandma are obvious fellow travellers, the duo’s songs tackle the big spaces head-on, unafraid of going for the swooping drama and earworm melodies of their labelmates, Chvrches.

The Guardian 60

(Glassnote)
Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville’s debut album is full of good melodies and millennial anxiety. It just needs the grain of sand that makes the pearl

The debut album by Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville is a cigarette paper away from brilliance: all it lacks is little more colour, a little more variation, just the little spark that sets the extraordinary apart from the rest. Their territory is not a million miles from the 1975’s: millennial anxiety pops up time and time again (“I’m in my 20s, so I panic in every way / I’m so scared of the future, I keep missing today,” they sing on You’ve Got Your Whole Life Ahead of You Baby), and the way their harmonies fall sometimes calls to mind Matty Healy’s double-tracked vocal.