Angie – Suicidal Since 1995 (Universal Music)
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| Angie - Suicidal Since 1995 |
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”.
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| 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.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/lilweedhoe/