Well who knows what pop even means any more but, still, Masseduction has gotta have a claim to being the best pop record I've listened to this year. I liked her last one but this one is just super tight.
The immediate impression is more textural and hook-y, but with more listens the sharpness of the songs punches through - exhibit A being "Pills" and the way it gradually reveals itself as a complete epic, unspooling from the very Fear of Music-y opening through crunching guitar, an increasingly insistent baseline, an extended slowed-down outro and then, why not, some spacey saxophone to take us out. She's terrific when sketching out zig-zagging stretched-out melodies (e.g. "Hang on Me", "New York" - though that latter reminds me a touch of Regina Spektor, "Slow Disco"), terrific when putting her foot down and stomping (e.g. the title track, "Sugarboy"), and terrific when doing both at once (e.g. "Los Ageless", "Young Lover"). For all of its veers, this album feels kind of like a hug.
The immediate impression is more textural and hook-y, but with more listens the sharpness of the songs punches through - exhibit A being "Pills" and the way it gradually reveals itself as a complete epic, unspooling from the very Fear of Music-y opening through crunching guitar, an increasingly insistent baseline, an extended slowed-down outro and then, why not, some spacey saxophone to take us out. She's terrific when sketching out zig-zagging stretched-out melodies (e.g. "Hang on Me", "New York" - though that latter reminds me a touch of Regina Spektor, "Slow Disco"), terrific when putting her foot down and stomping (e.g. the title track, "Sugarboy"), and terrific when doing both at once (e.g. "Los Ageless", "Young Lover"). For all of its veers, this album feels kind of like a hug.
