Beaver With Ears

Pop music to be forgotten.

I was excited for this album’s release, but it seems to fall flat in almost every regard. ADÉLA herself is a success story, originally being rejected from KATSEYE, though it did get her name out. She released “The Provocateur” last year to huge success both commercially and critically, even featuring production from the likes of Dylan Brady of 100 gecs and Grimes. It set the bar quite high for ADÉLA’s debut album and placed her as somewhat of an underdog against KATSEYE as they continued to flounder with their middling EPs, especially their recent release, “WILD.”

The unfortunate reality is that ADÉLA fell into all the same pitfalls of many pop acts (including KATSEYE) and effectively took the safe route for her debut album. To her credit, it has come with quite sizable success commercially. However, the tradeoff was her artistry and the general quality of the music. “PRIMA” is an incredibly bland record, as if ADÉLA was assigned a checklist of pop tropes and stereotypes to jam into the span of thirty minutes.

‘Nicole Kidman’ is a hodge-podge of overdone styles of pop and hip hop all hastily glued together. The production itself feels beyond tired and ADÉLA herself does almost nothing to liven the mood. This is generally the story for most songs on “PRIMA,” shells of songs that could’ve been great if they’d just been in the oven longer and felt like there was genuine care and effort put in.

If “PRIMA” hadn’t lost you yet, ADÉLA’s still got one last ballad for you with ‘Therapy.’ It’s a toddler’s ballad for sure, as she uses this strange and out of place autotune and very surface level lyricism, as if the bluntness is supposed to circle back to being profound. It doesn’t.

I’ll ease up for a moment. ‘KGB,’ ‘Boys,’ and ‘Fantasize’ are all solid tracks that are muddied by their company. I actually loved ‘KGB’ as a single and had it in my rotation leading up to the release of “PRIMA,” though it grew off me substantially once it was with the rest of the album. Additionally, I think ‘Nasty Dirty Gross,’ the bonus track on the deluxe edition of PRIMA, is fantastic and probably ADÉLA’s best song (though it hasn’t affected the score on this album since it, after all, isn’t a part of the original). It’s a complete headscratcher on why she’d leave it off.

Unfortunately, the only thing I will remember this album for is the disappointment. I genuinely wanted to like this album and upon the release of ‘KGB’ I thought she was gearing up for something special, but I was met with almost the exact opposite. That said, this is still an overall win for ADÉLA, obviously. She’s reached near-superstar status, even surpassing the group that rejected her. I just wish she could’ve done it with good music. There’s always the sophomore album!

Favorite Track(s): KGB, Fantasize, Nasty Dirty Gross

Written by Michéal Doran