Michael Wu has spent a long time in the background. The Upstate New York multi-instrumentalist built his reputation as a sideman – touring the Northeast with Gunpoets and Maddy Walsh & The Blind Spots, doing session bass work across the Ithaca and Binghamton scenes, sharing stages with Randy McStine of Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson’s touring band. That kind of resume teaches you how songs work from the inside. “The Other Side” dropped March 27th as both the closing single and title track of his debut EP – a four-song project he rolled out across nine months of singles starting with “Time25” in June 2025.
The EP’s throughline is presence, or more accurately, the lack of it – the ways worry, distraction, and the persistent belief that something better is just around the corner pull us out of where we actually are. “The Other Side” doesn’t wrap that up neatly. It sits with the discomfort of not having an answer, which is harder to pull off than it sounds and more honest than most songs that take on similar territory. The production, handled with engineer John Carter, leans on Rickenbacker chiming tones and melodic bass grounding to create something that feels simultaneously restless and rooted. The R.E.M. and early Death Cab for Cutie influence is audible without being worn as a costume – Michael Wu has spent enough time listening carefully that the references feel absorbed rather than borrowed. The vocal delivery is measured throughout, which suits the subject matter.
For a debut EP from someone making the transition from sideman to frontman, the self-awareness on display here is notable. Michael Wu isn’t trying to cover too much ground or announce himself loudly. The build-from-scratch YouTube documentation he’s been running alongside the releases suggests someone who understands that the process and the work are inseparable, and to me, I find that very exciting to see an artist have that awareness.
