Ian Sweet's Bold New Album Confronts Anxiety

Jilian Medford's latest album as Ian Sweet, "Show Me How You Disappear," marks a significant evolution in her sound. The record is characterized as bigger, brighter, cleaner, and more ambitious than her previous work.

Medford, who began Ian Sweet in 2014, has moved towards more expansive and impactful songwriting. Her earlier albums explored childhood touchstones filtered through early adulthood anxieties, with a tendency to twist song structures. Her second album, "Crush Crusher," leaned into deeper textures, creating a more muted indie-pop sound.

On "Show Me How You Disappear," Medford collaborated with producers like Andrew Sarlo and Andy Seltzer. The music swells with emotion, reminiscent of early-era Broken Social Scene. Medford has intentionally slowed the music's metabolism, amplifying her gestures, as heard in the explosive chorus of "Power."

This album directly confronts Medford's personal experiences with acute anxiety, which led her to an outpatient facility. There, she discovered the transformative power of mantras, incorporating phrases like "I want to get better" into her lyrics. These mantras are used to reinforce resolutions, highlighting their fragile nature.

While themes of codependency have long been present in her lyrics, the new songs are more direct and outward-facing. They acknowledge the unsettling feeling of unwanted disappearance into another person, framing it as a personal national emergency that may go unnoticed by others.