Self Esteem, Compliments Please - album review
‘I am overwhelmingly proud to have finally made the record that’s been sitting in my guts since I was a child’, says Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem.
Rebecca, as one half of duo Slow Club, has always had a more folky public persona. At least in her music.
This seems such a gargantuan break from that. The big basslines. How each track differs so vastly from the one before. The gospel choirs and other vocal elements she utilises in the choruses.
There is SO MUCH to love about this album. We should hold the experimentation and youthful exuberance up high as a ‘how to’ guide to making a modern pop behemoth. Self Esteem has absolutely nailed it.
There is so much going on here, so much excitement. Take the tribal-like chanting that powers Actors from start to finish. The clapped rhythms are gripping. It’s so a capella in its delivery yet sounds like it belongs just as much as any of the big, studio-polished electro vibes here.
The single Wrestling is one of these songs, straight from its Deadmau5-esque intro with screeching, distorted wrenching. The chorus has one thumping heartbeat of a rhythm to it which makes it one to salivate over live.
The deep, mysterious swirls in She Reigns are just as enthralling with their almost haunting grip on you. And they eventually give way to the most heartbroken of guitars. The comparisons to Prince’s Purple Rain have been made elsewhere and it is difficult to argue with them. They work themselves up into a frenzy that is snatched away from us just as quickly as it erupts.
Rollout, another single from the record, carries the kind of rib-punching, quick-time rhythms that prop up a lot of modern pop. It’s not over-egging it to say you could imagine Rihanna or Beyoncé sampling something like this when the agitation triggers them.
The harmonies that shriek in the chorus of I’m Shy are fantastic, too. This is a real pick-me-up of a track for the most heartbroken among us. Self Esteem must be one hell of a fisherwoman based on the hooks she captures with in her choruses.
We could go on, this is that good a debut. Her upcoming tour will be a blast.
Rating: 9/10
Self Esteem will perform at Birmingham’s Hare & Hounds on March 12
