Pem – ‘Other Ways Of Landing’ EP review: Surrendered and stunning
In 2024, Pem put out a body of work that bowled me over. Cloud Work was an instant five-star release, a rare piece of perfection that was at once both beautiful and gut-wrenching as the singer searched for something to grip onto during the storm of grief. Now, on Other Ways Of Landing, she surrenders to being untethered.
The Skinny: It’s dangerous territory to suggest that art requires devastation, because it doesn’t, and that mindset has caused tragic chaos in art for too long. Cloud Work was made out of devastation, though, as Pem wrote in the immediate aftermath of her father’s death, creating a body of work that was so visceral that its emotional power is still sharp.
The release of Other Ways Of Landing reminds me of Nick Cave’s duo documentaries: One More Time With Feeling in 2016 and This Much I Know To Be True in 2022. In the first, Cave had just lost his son, Arthur, the cameras find a man shell-shocked, broken, and desperately clinging to work as something to keep him afloat, and years later, the follow-up finds Cave with loosened fingers, he talks about wanting other hobbies, wanting to go on more holidays, wanting to create art still, but with less white knuckles. In short, the first documentary is the eye of the storm, the second is a portrait of loss and grief as a part of Cave’s landscape.
I bring it up because these EPs feel much the same. Pem literally sings on Cloud Work, “I am sure that I am going to lose you / Somewhere between the tightening of my grip,” as that project sees her seeking out some sense of stability or a way to cope through the intensity of loss.
On this follow up, everything about the project feels loosened and surrendered to the idea of float – it was recorded from place to place, it was written alongside Pem’s other jobs and travels, it even sings of a kind of blissful instability; driving down windy motorways, seeking guidance from the moon, pondering the world turning, singing outright about easily moved and giving in to changeability.
“I guess we better get going, and isn’t it strange that way,” Pem sings on the stunning ‘to earth will you tell me when we land’. I’d say it was a centrepiece track, with its lush instrumentation and richness, but I could say that about each and every song here. Once again, like the sonics of Cloud Work, there is no weak spot. Pem pushes herself further here, bringing in different sounds and elevating orchestral details, but nothing is ever too overwhelming or too crowding by what is the obvious power in all her work – her utterly unique vocals, and the words they’re delivering.
No one needs to be told anymore about how special Pem’s voice is. Listen to a moment of any song, and you’ll get it. With this EP, we gain five more songs sung so beautifully by her that no one will ever dare to interrupt by singing along at her shows.
But what we also gain is a next step. Evolving further and further with each offering she grants the world, Pem is a rare artist with a clear and born talent in that voice, and then the creative mind and guts to keep on developing it in both her songwriting and her sonics – a recipe sure to breed true, golden and unrusting success.
The Verdict: As this new EP finds Pem loosening into life, finding peace in the griplessness of surrendering to belonging both nowhere and everywhere, the emotions stay poignant as ever, the vocals stay bafflingly beautiful, and the quality goes up with another special delivery from one of the UK’s shiniest new stars.
Stand out track: ‘to earth will you tell me when we land’
Release date: January 30th, 2026 | Producer: Ali Chant | Label: Fascination Street Records
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