Josie Man: Identity Pop in Full Color

Out of South London, 28 year old Josie Man’s most recent EP, "God Forbid A Girl Has Dreams", offers fans fresh, shimmery “identity pop” with a ton of personality embedded in each track. Written alongside Jared Laville, Lees, and Louis Stanley Issacs the five song EP holds back no emotion, and speaks to Man’s love for authentic songwriting. Compared to her very first single, “Colours”, Josie has stayed true to her value of authentic expression, just boldened the shimmery synths and the bright vocals that make her newest EP so vivid. 

Man is able to explore authenticity further through tracks like “Perfect (Idols)”, reflecting on how what influencers and celebrities show on social media is often very skewed from reality. In a post of her own she shared, “I wrote it after two artists I loved weren’t who I’d built them up to be… it’s also about our obsession with perfection and how little of what we see online is real.”. Josie’s vivid self expression and genuineness is very refreshing in an era of music that prioritizes catchy hooks and TikTok marketability alone. 

Josie has been very adamant about having felt misunderstood and struggling to find her identity growing up. Her father from Hong Kong and mother from Catford, Josie’s heritage alone is a multi-hyphenate. As an artist, she channels every facet of her being into Identity pop to express herself “and [her] subtle millions” of identities. Josie strives to Her sound so vibrantly captures this on God Forbid A Girl Has Dreams, as every track has its own distinct sonic flavor. 

“Loving You Is Easy” for example, so nicely melts a little bit of country twang in the guitars with electropop vocals. Meanwhile, “Perfect (Idols)” brings listeners nostalgic synths and dreamy vocals. Though each track has a personality of its own, each of them share Josie’s signature shimmery sound. We are absolutely loving God Forbid A Girl Has Dreams’s unique sound and honest themes, and we can’t wait to see what’s next for Josie Man.