If you’ve even glanced your eyes over the pages of Unrecorded in the past year, you’ll have noticed Messy Eater (aka Pete Bott) popping up time and time again. This goes beyond just liking a musician’s style or personality, for us each track is like discovering a whole new artist all over again. Messy Eater has built up a reputation for reinvention from release to release and his latest single ‘Learning to love what I see in the mirror’ continues this trend.
The opening is a refreshing switch-up on previous singles with 90s-era R&B beat, radio static and washed-out vocal samples that hook us in with pure nostalgia. With the stage set, Bott dives into his rhythmic vocal performance that conveys a stream-of-consciousness of self-doubt and negative thought patterns. Lines like “I’ve been trying to silence all these voices in my head, they say nothing’s ever good enough and I should stay in bed,” exposes an incredibly relatable experience that so many of us go through. Delivered at a quick tempo, the slinking bass line and tripping hi-hats add to that sense of urgency and anxiety as the whole track is propelled forward.
In contrast to the insecurity spilling out from the verses, Bott‘s “love myself” mantra shines through in the vibrant chorus. It’s packed with an earnestness for change, which no doubt resonates with listeners who’ve just made their new year’s resolutions. This theme of change and adaptation continues throughout the rest of the track as it dips and dives through stylistic diversity. At around the 1:43 mark, ‘Learning to love what I see in the mirror’ slips into a dreamy disco-house refrain with chimes and ethereal backing vocals.
This uplifting anthem is geared towards embracing imperfections, which is an essential message in a society that’s filled with social media comparisons, internalised self-criticism and truly unrealistic expectations. ‘Learning to love what I see in the mirror’ is Messy Eater’s most life-affirming moment yet and hopefully it signals more of what’s to come from this project in 2026.
You can listen to ‘Learning to love what I see in the mirror’ in our Outsiders Club playlist.
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