Micah Madore’s EP Scenic Side of Skeptical creates a lyrical narrative that threads together introspection, relationship nuance, and existential consideration into an emotive whole. Throughout the EP’s six songs, lyrics uniformly mine themes of self-discovery, perseverance, and delicate tensions between affiliation and solitude. Title track Scenic Side of Skeptical gives a narrative anchor: Madore occupies a realm of doubt and observation but is at the same time progressing toward assurance and engagement. Such lyrics as “I’m on the scenic side of skeptical, but I’m heading for a turn / To the freelance side of confidence in the world that I observe” evidence a cautious optimism, reflecting humanity’s drive to become while recognizing the trepidation entailed in becoming. That tension between doubt and courage twists throughout the EP to become a discreet emotional thread uniting all songs.

With opening song What We Do, Madore presents a reflective perspective on routines, decisions, and common ground in living them out. The lyrics investigate daily human interaction and the freedom to be happy about patterns repeating—”you’re not the first won’t be the last”—yet freedom in how we approach them: “Whatever you choose to do, it’s all up to you.” That idea of autonomy within a community background supports later reflective self-examination in Scenic Side of Skeptical and Scattered Mines. With the former, Madore investigates interpersonal strife and emotional minefields and uses the image of “scattered mines” to describe repeating emotional problems. That imagery works to suggest a careful consideration of personal and relationship entanglement and supports the EP’s overall theme of living life out thoughtfully and intentionally.

Madore’s lyrical observance of place and memory further solidifies the EP’s unified perspective. With River, in naturalistic imagery the artist probes concerns of mortality, duration, and memory: “I watch you roll your waves / Down into the lake / And then I wonder just how long it’s gonna take / For you to haul my ash away one day.” This consideration of impermanence resonates against the preceding reflections in What We Do and Scenic Side of Skeptical, connecting personal experience to larger cycles of life. Justly, too, in Faded in the Snow past relationships and change become a subject of reflection: Madore balances longing and acceptance: “Along the way your footsteps, they faded in the snow / You must’ve flown away or I just closed my eyes a little too long.” Such delicate equilibrium between wistfulness and perception corresponds to the EP’s wider lyrical sensibility: introspective but not self-indulgent, observational but without sacrifice of feeling intimacy.

Romantic and relational exploration is approached equally deeply in Early Days, in which Madore regards the tender early moments of entwinement. Lines like “Are we tethered threads or is this we / Nurturing a curiosity?” both call out uncertainty and marvel at new intimacy, mirroring the EP’s wider interest in meeting complexity with patience and thoughtfulness. Throughout the EP, Madore’s lyrics inexorably combine personal self-examination with relational awareness, implying a worldview nourishing connection, growth, and careful engagement with life’s uncertainties.

As a whole, Scenic Side of Skeptical embodies a lyrical unity that is both reflective and uplifting. Madore’s lyrics grapple profoundly with human frailty, the search for assurance, and love and loss rhythms but never relinquish a spirit of optimism. By echoing themes of self-consciousness, emotional strength, and relationship patterns throughout songs, the EP creates a reflective and gratifying process for listeners who respond to lyrical depth. What emerges is a work that is both intimate and global at once, a reflective process that invites consideration both of the self and of the world. Madore’s lyrics entice the listener to accept doubt while progressing forward, to discover loveliness in the scenic, skeptical ways of things.