Merpire’s high­ly antic­i­pat­ed sec­ond album, Milk Pool, drops today July 4th, fea­tur­ing the pre­vi­ous­ly released sin­gle Big­ger. Mel­bourne based Rhi­an­non Atkin­son-Howatt – aka Mer­pire – first impressed music fans with her 2021 debut, Sim­u­la­tion Ride, and she’s back to take things even further.

Flu­id and meta­phys­i­cal as the tides, Milk Pool is for “the roman­tics, the day­dream­ers, and those mov­ing through intense peri­ods of change” – it’s a dark-pop album which Mer­pire wrote dur­ing the last phase of a rela­tion­ship. It is notable for its uncon­ven­tion­al rhythms and chord choic­es, moody synths and vivid imagery.

Mer­pire col­lab­o­rat­ed with Lon­don-based producer/engineer James Dring (who has worked with Nilüfer Yanya, Gen­e­sis Owusu, Porch­es) who hand-picked Big­ger to work on with Mer­pire after they con­nect­ed in 2022 dur­ing her first UK shows. 

Mer­pire opens Milk Pool with one of its punchi­est tracks, Leav­ing With You. Her rich, expres­sive vocals rise above a pow­er­ful instru­men­tal back­drop, inject­ing a feisty ener­gy that instant­ly hooks the lis­ten­er in. Sec­ond is Pre­mo­ni­tion, a dreamy num­ber that dials down the tem­po and reveals the extent of Merpire’s range. 

Pre­vi­ous­ly released sin­gle Big­ger (video below) is one of the high­lights. There’s a warmth and raw appeal to Merpire’s voice here, with a sub­tle coun­try under­tone that lends a heart­felt qual­i­ty to the track. That coun­try tinge returns lat­er on Fish­ing, which car­ries the same earthy, emo­tion­al pull.

The album shines in its soft­er moments, too. Cin­na­mon and the stun­ning fig.8 explore a more del­i­cate side of Merpire’s song­writ­ing, with the lat­ter evok­ing shades of Julia Jack­lin in both vocal deliv­ery and atmos­phere. Anoth­er stand­out is Inter­net, a plain­tive, con­tem­pla­tive ode where Mer­pire won­ders: “Inter­net, how do you know if some­body likes you? How do you read their body lan­guage?” It’s a vul­ner­a­ble track that cap­tures the anx­i­eties of dig­i­tal-age connection.

Across the album, Mer­pire mas­ter­ful­ly bal­ances upbeat pop-rock with ten­der, intro­spec­tive bal­lads, all while deliv­er­ing vocals that are warm and expres­sive. This release marks anoth­er con­fi­dent step for­ward for an artist unafraid to bare her soul and exper­i­ment with sound.

Mer­pire – Milk Pool tracklist

1. Leav­ing With You
2. Pre­mo­ni­tion
3. Big­ger
4. Rosan­na
5. Cin­na­mon
6. fig.8
7. Canine
8. Fish­ing
9. Retriev­er
10. Inter­net
11. You Are Loved

Mer­pire – Milk Pool release date 4th July 2025
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