There’s something inherently cinematic about the way fear works its way into pop music. Most of the time it’s camp—the kind of monster-mash novelty that dies as quickly as the candy supply. But every once in a while, a young voice emerges from the fog, unafraid to play dress-up with the supernatural while keeping both feet planted firmly on the dancefloor. Enter Olivia Millin, 20 years old, already crafting her mythology with a pen dipped in neon ink and blood. Her new single, “Soul for the Taking,” (out September 12th) is a Halloween-themed slice of J-Pop/dance-pop confection that pulses like a strobe light in a haunted house.
The track, produced with icy precision by Kevin Charge, wastes no time pulling you into its shadow world. Millin sings with a mischievous grin, her voice sweet and sinister, as if she’s luring the listener into a cornfield maze where demons dance in sync with bass drops. The verses are vivid vignettes—fog swallowing friends, footsteps echoing into nowhere, a voice from the void whispering your doom. It’s pop theatre with teeth, a carnival ride wrapped in glow-in-the-dark cobwebs.
What’s thrilling about “Soul for the Taking” isn’t just the Halloween gimmickry—it’s Olivia’s ability to merge narrative songwriting with the pulse of club culture. The chorus, with its chant of “the afterlife is waiting / your soul is ours for taking,” is a sugar-rush hook that straddles playful and predatory. You can practically imagine costumed fans shouting it back at her during a live show, arms in the air, as the lights flicker blood red. It’s that duality—terrifying and fun—that makes the song feel like it could stick around year after year.
Lyrically, Millin toys with tropes that could easily slip into cliché, but she injects them with her own youthful bravado. There’s a cinematic detail to lines about zombies, ghouls, and demons “fiending for your soul.” You don’t just hear them—you see them, like extras from a cult horror flick ready to break into a choreographed dance sequence. And that’s where Millin shows her instincts: she knows Halloween isn’t just about scaring people. It’s about spectacle, ritual, catharsis. She offers all three in under four minutes.
Musically, the production fuses glossy J-pop sensibilities with a darker electronic underbelly. The beat is relentless, throbbing like a heartbeat under duress, while layers of synth weave a sonic fog you can almost get lost in. The result feels equal parts Harajuku dance party and Tim Burton fever dream. Kevin Charge gives Olivia the perfect sonic playground: eerie but not oppressive, poppy but never lightweight.
At 20, Olivia Millin is already positioning herself as a global pop experimenter, unafraid to lean into her own eccentricities. “Soul for the Taking” is more than a seasonal gimmick—it’s a statement of intent. She wants to entertain, to frighten, to mesmerize, and most of all, to make you move. If Halloween needed a new anthem for the TikTok generation, Millin may have just delivered it. Like the best seasonal songs, this one has the power to outlive the pumpkins. The afterlife is waiting—and it’s got a beat you can dance to.