B-Side Guys

The phrase “daddy issues” carries cultural baggage that often reduces complex psychological patterns to dismissive shorthand. Melbourne’s POLLY reclaims this loaded terminology with Daddy Issues, a four-track EP that transforms personal excavation into sophisticated pop architecture. Across twelve minutes, she demonstrates how childhood trauma can become creative fuel without romanticizing the pain that feeds it.

Working with producers Ben Oldland and Liam Quinn—whose credits include Ruel and Peach PRC—POLLY has crafted soundscapes that match her emotional complexity. The production never feels overdone despite its digital richness; instead, every synthetic texture serves the songs’ exploration of how past experiences shape present relationships. This isn’t therapy set to beats; it’s pop music that understands how healing requires both vulnerability and strength.

“BETTER” opens the collection by establishing its central tension: the exhausting habit of measuring reality against possibility. The track’s autotune work feels creative rather than corrective, suggesting how we sometimes need technological mediation to process authentic emotion. POLLY’s vocals navigate between yearning and resignation, creating space for listeners to project their own experiences of comparing their lives to imagined alternatives. The production’s twinkling digital elements provide sonic representation of those shimmering “what if” moments that can make present circumstances feel inadequate.

The EP’s sequencing demonstrates sophisticated understanding of emotional flow. Following “BETTER” with “B.I.T.E ME” creates powerful contrast between internal comparison and external conflict. Where the opener explores private disappointment, “B.I.T.E ME” transforms heartbreak into defiant anthem. The track’s caustic lyrics—particularly the refrain “B.I.T.E, yeah, go bite me”—demonstrate POLLY’s ability to find empowerment through confrontation rather than avoidance.

“B.I.T.E ME” functions as the EP’s most immediately satisfying moment, combining pulsing drums with pointed lyrics that refuse to soften their edges. The song earns its Triple J recognition through its ability to make anger feel celebratory rather than destructive. POLLY’s delivery suggests someone who’s learned that expressing fury can be healthier than suppressing it, transforming post-breakup bitterness into something approaching liberation.

The EP’s emotional pivot arrives with “Colours,” a track that strips away much of the digital ornamentation to focus on ethereal vocal layering and subtle piano. This aesthetic shift serves the song’s exploration of impossible hope, creating intimate space for examining attraction to people who ultimately prove harmful. POLLY’s performance here demonstrates remarkable vulnerability, acknowledging the pain of wanting connection with someone who wasn’t capable of providing it.

“Colours” represents the collection’s most musically adventurous moment, using gentle electronic melodies to create atmosphere that feels both nostalgic and futuristic. The track’s restraint allows POLLY’s vocal work to carry maximum emotional weight, demonstrating how effective pop production can enhance rather than compete with sincere expression. Her yearning feels genuine rather than performed, suggesting authentic engagement with difficult emotional territory.

The EP concludes with “Feels Like,” a track that synthesizes the collection’s themes through nostalgic club aesthetics. The song’s echoey electronic pulses create intimate mood despite their dance-floor origins, while POLLY’s vocals journey from low vulnerability to soaring release. This progression mirrors the EP’s overall arc, moving from private struggle toward something approaching resolution.

“Feels Like” demonstrates POLLY’s understanding that healing doesn’t require abandoning the spaces where pain originated. Instead of rejecting club culture or digital production, she transforms these elements into tools for processing complex emotions. The track suggests that authenticity can emerge from artificial environments, that vulnerability can coexist with technological mediation.

What makes Daddy Issues particularly compelling is its refusal to present neat resolution. These four tracks acknowledge that childhood trauma creates lasting patterns while suggesting that awareness can create possibilities for change. POLLY doesn’t claim to have solved her issues; instead, she demonstrates how artistic expression can provide framework for ongoing emotional work.

The EP’s production consistently serves its thematic content without sacrificing pop accessibility. The nostalgic-soaked synths and decadent vocals create immediate appeal while the hard-hitting lyricism rewards careful attention. This balance suggests an artist who understands that effective communication requires both emotional honesty and sonic sophistication.

POLLY’s international reach—listeners in over 116 countries—speaks to how personal specificity can achieve universal resonance. While her experiences are particular, her exploration of how childhood affects adult relationships feels broadly relevant. The EP functions as invitation for listeners to examine their own patterns without prescribing specific solutions.

Daddy Issues succeeds because it treats psychological complexity as creative opportunity rather than artistic limitation. POLLY has created work that honors difficult experiences while refusing to be defined by them, using sophisticated pop production to explore how past pain can inform present strength. In transforming personal excavation into musical celebration, she’s crafted an EP that feels both cathartic and empowering.

Most importantly, Daddy Issues demonstrates that effective pop music can engage with serious subject matter without losing its essential joy. POLLY has created something that works equally well on dance floors and in therapy sessions, proving that healing and celebration aren’t mutually exclusive.