NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The pop album of the summer is here. 鈥淎ddison,鈥� is full, stuffed with bejeweled, hypnotic pop songs for the Hedonism has a new hero.
For those who鈥檝e watched her rise, it鈥檚 almost impossible to believe. It wasn鈥檛 so long ago 鈥� almost exactly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic 鈥� that a young Rae went on 鈥淭he Tonight Show鈥� and taught its host a few then what made up the bulk of her career. It was met with almost immediate backlash, as is common for young women with viral posts. But she wielded it like a weapon: Social media celebrity begat acting roles for Rae, then a coveted collaboration with in the form of a 鈥淰on Dutch鈥� remix, and now, at age 24, her final form: becoming the hyper-ambitious, hyper-femme pop star for the current moment.
As a full body of work, 鈥淎ddison鈥� taps into the genre-agnostic zeitgeist, where pop music appears edgy and elastic. The songs speak for themselves, from the pitch-shifted trip-hop 鈥淗eadphones On鈥� and the snapped percussion, minor chords, NSFW lyrics and vanishing synths of 鈥淗igh Fashion鈥� to the 鈥淎quamarine鈥� atop a house beat and its chantable, spoken chorus: 鈥淭he world is my oyster / Baby, come touch the pearl / The world is my oyster / And I鈥檓 the only girl.鈥�
Humor and girlhood are intertwined with less of a and more of cheery irony. 鈥淢oney loves me,鈥� she yells on 鈥淢oney Is Everything.鈥� 鈥淚鈥檓 the richest girl in the world!鈥� Then, a giggle and a kiss. (鈥淕irl,鈥� to this writer鈥檚 count, is uttered 20 times across the album. Across its 12 tracks, she is both the divine feminine and the girl next door. Often, they are one in the same.)
Rae isn鈥檛 reinventing the wheel here, but she is carefully pulling from her inspirations. Her story recalls The pair are from Louisiana, became famous young, and recorded their unique, sensual, layered pop music in Stockholm, Sweden, in and around super producer There鈥檚 the earned parity, like in the 鈥淏orn to Die鈥�-channeling 鈥淒iet Pepsi,鈥� echoes of Charli in the bouncy opener 鈥淣ew York,鈥� and tinges of ethereal on the dreamy 鈥淪ummer Forever.鈥�
For 鈥淎ddison,鈥� Rae partnered with two primary collaborators 鈥� Luka Kloser and Elvira Anderfj盲rd, who goes simply by Elvira 鈥� an unusually small team for a major label pop release. But that intimacy is one of the album鈥檚 superpowers, a sensibility that teeters between close mic recordings and big late-night anthems. In the latter case, look no further than 鈥淔ame Is a Gun,鈥� an easy song-of-the-summer contender, a sunglasses-in-the-club banger with synthetic vocal textures and an unignorable chorus.
In the lead up to the release of 鈥淎ddison,鈥� Rae has positioned her early TikTok fame as a means to an end. There aren鈥檛 many avenues to Hollywood from Lafayette, Louisiana, and social media, for some, is a democratizing tool. Rae used her dance training to build a name for herself on the platform, something that has no doubt laid an ideal foundation for pop superstardom 鈥� just consider how did something similar with covers on YouTube not so many years ago. It feels full circle, then, that Rae鈥檚 stellar debut album aims to do what her videos on TikTok attempted to do, what she鈥檚 always wanted to do 鈥� dance, and get others to dance, too.
Maria Sherman, The Associated Press
