On April 17th, 2026, Nashville’s DIY Alt-Singer-Songwriter Nicole Alexis made listeners aware of her multi-faceted skills, versatility, and rich inner artist world when she released her latest heartfelt, relatable Alt-Acoustic EP, Mirrors and Smoke. Known for making Alt-Rock and Pop-Punk-leaning tracks full of high-energy and infectious melodies, her new EP hits you with an unexpected but captivating curveball filled with a sonically somber atmosphere, deeply emotional lyrics, and an immersive experience that takes you through a story of yearning, heartbreak, and an everlasting emotional push-and-pull.
The EP starts with its opening track, “Just A Friend.” Starting the listening journey off by sharing the devastatingly familiar experience we’ve all had of loving someone you can’t have. With its charming, laid-back acoustic instrumental, the sickeningly sweet guitar notes and tambourine give the desperately honest lyrics added weight and depth to the heaviness they carry. The suave, dynamic song, filled with cruel warmth, desire, and sadness, effortlessly combines the grounded ambient-acoustic instrumental with the grim, from-the-heart lyrics and vocals you’ll hear throughout the rest of the EP.
Midway through the EP conveys the desperation, and tells the painful turning point of becoming self-aware of the damage you did to yourself in the relationship with the tracks “Close 2 U” and “Runner.” “Close 2 U” brings the tempo to a slower speed to deliver the experience of the gritty self-reflection taking place through the song. The pained soft vocals delivering the lyrics vibrantly paint the emotions that are grimly splattered with stinging acceptance and aching longing.
“Runner” joins “Close 2 U” in offering a look back at the crumbling relationship that led to the storming and shattered aftermath. The experience of choosing self-abandonment over losing the one you love that fills you with the feeling of blissfully being loved, while simultaneously extinguishing your inner light and dragging you into the dark depths of agony, with the lyrics, “But I can’t leave you now, ‘cause you pull me under, and I choose to stay ‘cause I’m not a runner. The hell we’re under. I can’t get away from the lightning and thunder…”
The EP concludes the immersive emotional journey with the track “Don’t Tell Me To Breathe.” An emphatic, energizing closer that lets the inner struggling and frustration flow through it.
An overall universal feeling of your thoughts, fears, and feelings repeatedly being dismissed, ignored, and minimized is carried and delivered by the song’s raw, frustrated vocal and lyrical inflection and a swift, lively, robust instrumental. It delivers you at the end of your listening experience by leaving you with the dynamic, nurturing bare-bones instrumental that gives a powerful, jabbing declaration at the end announcing the end of the EP, which creates a secure, tranquil mental space that harbors the overall stories, feelings, and experiences you witnessed throughout the entire EP to reflect on and process.
Mirrors and Smoke is an authentic, emotionally dense EP that builds a listening experience full of catchy melodies, brutal honesty, overwhelming hardship, brief, intoxicating love turned sour, and beautifully soulful instrumental companions to comfort you along the way. The EP represents the bitter truths of the lonely, decaying relationship that takes parts of you with it in its death, that many have experienced and temporarily lost themselves in.
Nicole Alexis is playing select shows during the summer in June. You can find more information on her website, here.
EP link | Dont Tell Me to Breathe acoustic live video | Just A Friend acoustic live video
