Ela Minus DÍA

Ela Minus has been striving to look inward since she released 2020's acts of rebellion. The Brooklyn-via-Columbia artist felt compelled to empower anyone to move past that difficult first step, capturing that spirit through icy dance beats without losing a beat.

 

Such is Minus' talent for delivering swift, euphoric pleasures that often overpower the message. Her follow-up, DÍA, similarly displays different approaches that build off from her previous release. Given how the hypnotic, winding techno of BROKEN builds and builds after an instrumental opener that sounds undeniably big in concept, it's a good problem to have. Self-reflection is a recurring theme throughout the album, whether she's absorbing (IDK), demolishing (ONWARDS), or owning her thoughts (I WANT TO BE BETTER). But when the latter goes into overdrive effortlessly a la Garbage circa Version 2.0, it's best to seize the moment and leave the worries out the door. On the industrial clang of ONWARDS, another highlight here, Minus echoes back her defiance by referencing one of Trent Reznor's most biting statements: “Now I see/that we need to feed/the hand that feeds.”

 

Minus openly captures the messy beauty of growth in real time in DÍA. And while she sometimes structures these songs a tad oblique, having rewritten some for three years straight, Minus understands that it's better to ease, rather than scrutinize, every aspect of the songwriting process. But never, ever should it be an afterthought.