Over the course of 2025, Debbii Dawson released four brilliant singles – including ‘Chemical Reaction’, one of NME’s best songs of that year – that charted the course for her future sound: glittery disco, ’80s synths and a dash of country for good measure. That path has led the singer-songwriter to her third EP, ‘Where Have All The Good Men Gone?’, an explosion of bright, dramatic pop production coupled with the dread of living in ever more unprecedented modern times.
In the past, Dawson used her sharp, witty writing to reflect inwardly, but the EP’s title track shows how strong it can be when she wields her pen against the outside world. “It’s like those dreams where you try to scream… There’s bills to pay and a genocide”, she sings with a tinge of despair in her voice as the buoyant, theatrical pop production builds, later declaring that “everybody’s missing their medullas”. Similarly, the pointed look at capitalism and consumerist culture on ‘Money’ is playfully wrapped in groovy disco-pop: “Put it on a payment plan, gotta-gotta pay that man / He never has enough / Tell me what you need that for, other people need that more”.
It’s not all gloom and doom, though. On the uplifting sing-along ‘Lay It All Down’, a welcome journey back to the folk-pop sound of Dawson’s early career, she sings about how “good times” are on the way, but just “a little late”. There’s also the corny closer ‘Mars’, where true love conquers all: “I’ll follow you if you go to Mars / Till the ends of earth and far across the universe”. As clichéd as it might be, Dawson’s charm and conviction carry the song across the finish line – if only just barely.
Dawson is best, though, when she strikes a balance between her inner and outer worlds, like on project standout ‘Kool Aid’. Inspired by her own time spent in a cult, the singer slyly invites listeners to question their own strongly held beliefs as she once had to do on the shimmering synthpop track that’s disguised as a love song: “I’d do anything that you say / I would drink your Kool-Aid / Everything they’re saying isn’t true / No one understands you like I do.”
Last year, Dawson told NME that “uncomfortable shifts” in the world and within herself were “feeding” into her craft, and those shifts manifest beautifully on ‘Where Have All The Good Men Gone?’. Once hyper-focused inwards, the new EP finds Dawson as a pop star who is openly inviting listeners into her peculiar musical world as she turns her gaze outwards, turning her own uncertainty and disillusionment into something wonderfully vibrant and deeply human.
Details
- Record label: RCA Records
- Release date: June 26, 2026