Miynt’s Rain Money Dogs, out May 30 on B3SCI Records, is a hazy, psychedelic trip that lingers like the scent after a summer rain in the woods. It’s an album in the proper sense, with a thoughtful and deliberate sequence to the songs, best heard in a single sitting. Written and recorded in the isolation of Sweden’s northern archipelago, the album is infused with a quiet, spacey energy that’s both introspective and slyly playful.
Fredrika Ribbing crafts songs that cross lines between grunge-tinged shoegaze, jazzy lounge, and trip-hop. Her vocals are soft, sometimes coy or saccharine, sometimes sultry, delivered with a languid ease that feels indulgent — never in a rush, leaving each phrase and idea and element space to breathe and connect.
Before Rain Money Dogs, Ribbing’s work as Miynt was already turning heads. From the early electro-flecked pop of her 2016 debut EP No.1 to the shimmering, psych-influenced Stay On Your Mind and the brooding of 2022’s Lonely Beach, Miynt has shown endless curiosity and an instinct for experimentation. That continues with Rain Money Dogs, as she takes full control of production duties for the first time, deepening her blend of digital and analog textures and pushing her songwriting into expansive territory.
Lyrically and thematically, the record balances the tension between digital surfaces and private longing, artificial brightness and real vulnerability. “Moneydog” captures this beautifully, with its groovy, gentle, noodly guitar line and the mantra-like chorus, “Side by side / Get it right” It’s a song about closeness and distance. Ribbing’s vocals are a soft whisper wrapped around building guitars in a way that feels intimate and familiar.
“Summer Rain” stretches that tension across its six-and-a-half-minute runtime. It’s the longest track on the album, but it earns every second, with complex and varied production and a smoky, jazz-inflected guitar solo. It’s introspective and indulgent, a song that never quite settles.
“I Am I Am What” is a moment of directness and Deep Purple energy in the middle of the album’s foggy swirl, with a video that calls back to a song from Lonely Beach. It nods to the Beatles with a playful reference to “Penny Lane,” but it’s also a song about performance and self-mythology: “Am I the washed out fur / Imposter girl / That takes your sweater“.
The record’s two instrumental tracks, “Car Crash in the Blue” and “Öppna brev”, act as intermissions, resetting things to let Miynt change gears. “Car Crash in the Blue” is raw and intimate, capturing the restlessness of a band in a room, while “Öppna brev” is a shuffly, jazzy instrumental that gets more psychedelic as it traverses its three minutes.
Late-album standout “Everything is Easy”, is where all these currents of desire, frustration, and fleeting connection come to a head. With its trip-hoppy groove and sultry vocals, it’s the record’s most explicit ode to seduction and release. The repeated phrase “Let your hands / Move with me now / again and again” feels both comforting and uncanny, a moment of sensual clarity in an album that thrives on ambiguity.
Rain Money Dogs is an album that about spaces where digital and real lives blur. Ribbing’s layered vocals and careful production create songs that feel tactile and intimate, even as they drift away like morning mist. It’s a record that reflects the quiet power of the northern archipelago where it was made.
Further Reading
Off Key profile (2022)
LUNA Collective profile (2022)
