MICO

They say you can’t go home again. After a few years away from the place that raised you, what used to just click no longer seems to fit. Did “home” change? Did you? With emotive vocals and heart-on-sleeve lyrics, alt-pop-rock artist MICO, 23, tackles these coming-of-age queries on his genre-jumping debut LP. When the lights turn on captures the Filipino-Canadian singer and songwriter’s path from bedroom upstart to “internet hometown hero” to whatever comes next. “Last year was crazy,” says MICO (real name Miguel Veloso). He means it both ways. There were incredible highs as he inked a major label deal with Columbia Records, headlined sold-out tours across the U.S. and Europe, and flew out to Los Angeles to record at the home of writer, producer, and pal Mickey Brandolino. But there were lows, too. “I was going through a breakup while only spending about three months at home all year. Every time I went back, things would be exactly the same, but feel so different. I suddenly had this worldview that didn’t align with anyone else’s. That’s why every song on this album is so personal — I was processing it all.” When the lights turn on is a racing collection of hook-driven tracks that pull sticky nostalgia from the best and brightest of 2000s/2010s pop-punk, while mixing in modern and unexpected strains that underscore the manic swings of a career that’s about to go supernova. The tracklist bursts with bittersweet revelations, as on the lead single “DREAMBOY.”