After revisiting ‘The Overload’ by Yard Act when it was shortlisted for the Mercury Award I thought I’d give another nominated act I have in my collection a blast.
Rebecca Lucy Taylor aka Self Esteem is another artist that I picked up on via BBC6Music, her single ‘I Do This All The Time’ made me stop what I was doing and rewind BBC Sounds. It is a spoken word piece covering Ms Taylor’s feelings of inadequacy and insecurity, it is a self help monologue to herself and is really powerful.
Before buying it, I wondered if the album would be 12 tracks like this but it really isn’t. This is a big album…big drums, big gospel choruses, big strings and, on the whole, big energy.
It is an album that tackles some ugly topics like women being harassed on the street, institutional sexism, messy breakups and self-destruction but delivers them via beautifully crafted pop nuggets.
I remember reading at the time of the albums release that Taylor wanted to use pop songs as a Trojan Horse to deliver her dark message, she certainly achieved that.
Tracks To Try: ‘Prioritise Pleasure’, ‘I Do This All The Time’, ’Still Reigning’, ‘How Can I Help You?’, ‘You Forever’.
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