Phoebe Green – Lucky Me
After working on the musical path for quite some time, Phoebe Green releases her debut album “Lucky Me”. The Manchester-born singer-songwriter has long played mostly indie pop on her guitar. But now she’s taking a different tack. The guitar has been put aside and the electropop has emerged. “Lucky Me” is a daring album with which Phoebe has put herself on the map. You want to hear more about this!
With influences from all corners of pop music (from Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga and HAIM, to FKA Twigs, Lorde and Radiohead), Phoebe Green has quite the mix. Her album goes in all directions. The opening track “Break Your Heart” gives the album a psychedelic and mysterious start while “Just A Game” is a real pop song. The colourful collection of genres shows the diversity of Green. And it all fits surprisingly well on “Lucky Me”.
The album contains a lot of personal lyrics. The young singer has been through a rough patch and needs to remind herself that she’s been lucky with the life she has now. The words ‘lucky me’ are tattooed on the back of her hand for a reason. She tells this story on the 80s-style title song. The days are getting harder, but she is called spoiled as soon as she talks about it. She must be lucky with what she has. A dark text on a cheerful song. And Green is not averse to that.
One of the highlights of ‘Lucky Me’ is the hyper-pop song “Crying In The Club”. A spoken-word verse is interspersed with a sung chorus. A very versatile song that is very different from all the songs on this album, but fits surprisingly well in between.
Although it appears that Green has tried to stay away from pop music, she doesn’t quite succeed. “Make It Easy” may push the boundaries of pop, but could have been on Billie Eilish’s most recent album, “Happier Than Ever”. Other songs like “Just A Game” and “One You Want”, both of which are about a ‘friends with benefits” -like relationship, are also typical pop songs: just a bit too overproduced, catchy and not very surprising.
That surprise comes to the fore on the last four tracks of the album. The dark side of Green no longer hides behind cheerful music, but can now be heard on electropop with a touch of drama. For example, “DieDieDie”, which could well have been an FKA Twigs song, is a ballad with a nice beat. The heaviest lyrics of the album can be found here: ‘I wish that I could shrink until I could fit into a locket I could hang around your neck, I’d choke you to death’. It’s clear that Green wrote this song when she was going through a dark period. Nevertheless, it manages to hold its own on the – most of the time – cheerful album.
Also closing tracks “I Wish You Never Saw Me Cry”, “Leach” and “I Don’t Wanna Make You Cold” can be there. From mysterious electronic drums to voice distortions. The indie artist in Phoebe Green gets free rein. It shows who Phoebe is and what her influences are. It is her debut album and the general public has yet to get to know her, but Phoebe Green already says that she can still go in any direction. Often an artist succeeds less, but with the extravagant young British it is perfect. On to more! (8/10) (Chess Club Records)
