How many acts gain the attention of Sir Elton John after releasing only one song? Such was the reception afforded Middle Kids’ 2016 debut single “Edge of Town”, however, with Sir Elton declaring himself a fan and airing the track on his Apple Music 1 show Rocket Hour. Released two years after singer-guitarist Hannah Joy and multi-instrumentalist Tim Fitz first met, “Edge of Town” is a brooding, slow-build indie-pop/rock number with a chorus both understated and addictive, characteristics that set the tone for the Sydney trio’s subsequent output, all the way up to 2021’s “Questions”. The band’s 2017 self-titled debut EP proved it was no fluke, with “Never Start” and “Fire in Your Eyes” (an early Joy solo track, and the first she ever worked on with Fitz) consolidating both band’s musical approach and Joy’s lyrical mix of complex emotion and everyday relatability. That latter attribute is on display via the diversity of issues Joy tackles, from her “noisy brain” (“Cellophone [Brain]”) and trust issues (“R U 4 Me?”) to her relationship with now-husband Fitz (“Stacking Chairs”). “Most of our lives, it’s pretty mundane and you just do the same shit every day,” she tells Apple Music. “In among that, we all have our pain and our loneliness, but we also have our moments of triumph and beauty. Sometimes they’re small and sometimes they’re big. And I feel like when we can hold all of that and live in that, that’s when we are great—that’s living.”