Ten years after uploading her first original song on YouTube, dodie has released her debut studio album, Build a Problem. Though this marks her first full-length release, the 25-year-old British singer-songwriter, born Dorothy Miranda Clark, has established a strong online presence with nearly 2 million subscribers on her main YouTube channel, and her three independently released EPs – 2016’s Intertwined, 2017’s You, and 2019’s Human – went on to reach the UK pop charts. One thing dodie’s videos and her music have in common is that they both can feel like soul-baring admissions of vulnerability. Throughout her career, she’s channeled that intimacy through lush folk pop built around soft vocals and plucky acoustic guitars, and her debut LP is no different – this time, though, the variations in sound and mood also reflect the contradictions she often speaks about in her discussions of mental health. Working with producer Joe Rubel as well as an 13-piece orchestra, dodie uses the extra space to experiment with different styles and structures as the album delves into darker, more dramatic territory, adding rich, complex layers to her explorations of self-worth, shame, and inner conflict.