With its deep bass and degraded synths,
Jhene Aiko’s single "Mirrors" is just about the smoothest thing the Los Angeles singer has released thus far. Thematically, though, the Key Wane-produced ballad is a little more complicated than that, as Aiko wrestles with all-too-human experience of taking a good hard look at yourself and not always liking what you see: "I wrote a song to sing to myself ... on days like these ... when I look in the mirror and it disagrees...." she confided to her fans on
Twitter yesterday. Fittingly, Topshelf Junior's ballet-themed video takes us back to a very vulnerable place in the psychic development of many a young woman—that formative, potentially devastating moment where we encounter an outward ideal of perfection, and are prompted to start thinking about how we measure up. Look out for a Jhene Aiko full-length in 2013, and watch her heartbreaking,
acoustic rendition of "Space Jam" at this fall's New York FADER FORT.
