B-Side Guys

Self-awareness doesn’t make self-destruction any prettier. Mary Middlefield knows this, and “Wake Up!” is the proof: a confrontational indie-rock single that refuses to clean itself up, because the point is exactly how ugly it gets before you can stop it.

The production, co-written and helmed by Gwen Buord, builds the claustrophobia deliberately. Thunderous drums and jagged guitars create a sound that feels like it’s running out of room, which is the whole idea. Middlefield’s vocal sits in that same space, neither soaring above the chaos nor buried in it, but right in the middle of it, present and unsparing. The swelling orchestration doesn’t arrive as relief; it arrives as escalation.

There’s no redemption here, no moment where the narrator pulls back and gains perspective. Middlefield describes writing from “a place where empathy shuts down and contempt takes over, including contempt for myself,” and that’s exactly what the track delivers: self-loathing that’s rotted loud, projection indistinguishable from confession. The repeated commands and cutting refrains don’t build toward catharsis so much as they circle back on themselves, mirroring the inner logic of someone too deep in the spiral to locate the exit.

The song doesn’t ask you to sympathize with the voice. It just asks you to watch. For an artist named one of Spotify’s 2025 Artists to Watch and fresh off stages at Glastonbury and the Paris Olympics, “Wake Up!” is a bold move toward her second album: a portrait of emotional collapse, committed to its own ugliness.