Marking a major step in her artistic evolution, Nell Mescal today releases her new EP The Closest We’ll Get, led by its heart-wrenching single “Middle Man.” The release arrives just as Mescal embarks on a run of UK arena shows supporting HAIM, ahead of her biggest headline tour to date this November.
Produced by Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Billie Marten, Cass McCombs), The Closest We’ll Get finds Mescal leaning into a warmer, more organic sound forged during intimate recording sessions in Brooklyn, New York. Blending her folk roots with Weinrobe’s unpolished, analogue production style, the result is a collection that feels both immediate and timeless, six songs tracing the dizzying highs and quiet heartbreak of love, loss, and everything in between.
Of the EP, Nell explains,
“The Closest We’ll Get is a collection of songs that tell a story about two people and how their relationship is in the grey area of friends or lovers. Each song is a realisation of how sitting in the in-between affected me and in turn affected the ‘friendship.’”
The project follows 2024’s Can I Miss It For a Minute?, a debut that established Mescal as one of Ireland’s most candid and emotionally articulate new voices. While that record explored body image, youth, and broken relationships through shimmering electronic pop, The Closest We’ll Get embraces something more tactile — a sound that breathes.
Already praised by i-D, The New York Times, Vogue, NME, and BBC Radio 1, and fresh from a nomination at the Rolling Stone UK Awards, Mescal has become one of the most compelling emerging voices of the past two years. With a packed live schedule stretching into 2025, The Closest We’ll Get cements her as an artist ready for a defining breakthrough.
