ANGIE – ALBUM REVIEW

Angie – Suicidal Since 1995 (Universal Music) 

Angie - Suicidal Since 1995
Release Date: Out Now

I’ve been waiting for this album for quite a while now, not since 1995 but it’s still been quite a long wait. Sweden’s Angie (aka lilwiidhoe aka fuckingangie) has produced a series of singles that have been swallowed down like fine liqueur chocolates – sweet and inviting on the outside but with the strong alcoholic centre that leaves your head reeling and your throat burning. This debut long player, ‘Suicidal Since 1995’, comes as all Angie releases do with a flirtation with controversy from the title and artwork to the content but the bigger concern is the glut of music out there which steers so wide of controversy that it risks falling down a cliff of indifference and MOR blandness. So, let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Opening with recent single ‘Dope’, Angie is on dreamy and seductive top form as she makes her point on top of a distant bass throb and clicked, insect-like beat. Angie’s voice is both child-like and worldly-wise which creates a strange sensation in the listener but one that is impossible to turn away from – maybe this is what the sirens sounded like. ‘Boss’ is up next and the woozy melodies continue with Angie singing “You can be the boss baby” on top of an innocent melody that could pass for a Brit-School produced pop princess until she sings about “kissing, touching, feeling you up” in the back of a car. This is Angie’s singular talent as she mixes sweet with sour, velvet glove with iron fist or strawberries with cream (think about that last one). On ‘Here for my Habits’ the music takes a darker twist and turn with an overtly seductive and sexual tone to proceedings as Angie sings “I know you want it but you can’t have it, you’re really cute but I’m here for my habit. I just wanna slide”.

Angie - no angel
The mid-point of this relatively short album is ‘We Run’ which borrows from dub and trip-hop as the vocals stumbles lazily, drunkenly down dark alley ways with that sense of confidence that intoxication gives you but this one explodes in the chorus, making sure you are left in no doubt as to the force this artist can harness. ‘2013’ gets all classy on us with strings and a coquettish vocal while the lyric of “smoking my own weed in the window” clashes with the slightly sad and wistful tone of the song. ‘Cocaine Brain’ is the most direct title on the album and takes a reggae rhythm mixed with an alt-pop melody to create the kind of track that’s perfect for cruising to – like a dubbed-up Lily Allen. The album finishes leaving us wanting more with Angie’s version of ‘Venus In Fur’. Now this is a brave one to take on, such is its seminal stature, but I for one think our Swedish anti-heroine is the perfect voice for this woozy, hazy, foggy track and it’s a triumph. There is, undoubtedly, more to come from Angie but she is still sickeningly young and has already dared to go further than most so it’s a case of when rather than if. ‘Suicidal Since 1995’ is a hugely impressive debut and potent calling card but, more importantly, it’s a benchmark for other artists to aspire to.


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