Freak Slug – ‘I Blow Out Big Candles’ album review: a glimpse into what an artist is capable of
THE SKINNY: The use of the bedroom as a recording studio has created a seismic shift in how pop music sounds over the last ten years or so, and the fact that anyone can turn their hand to recording their own music from the comfort of their own home has seen artists like Clairo and Alex G become celebrated names in indie music. While neither continued to make music in their bedrooms for long after their successes, the DIY and lo-fi aesthetics still worm their way into their homely sound and have developed something of a stranglehold on production styles in studio-recorded pop music.
For Manchester singer-songwriter Xenya Genovese, better known as Freak Slug, this is how she received her initial exposure to the world, with her 2020 single ‘Radio’ becoming a viral hit online yet having its origins firmly rooted in home recording through a Macbook speaker. Fast-forward to four years later, and the hallmarks of a full-length bedroom pop record are there on her debut, I Blow Out Big Candles, but with all the whistles and bells that working in a professional studio can offer an artist.
One issue with bedroom-dwelling artists is that it’s often easy to get tied up in trying to emulate your idols, especially when you have so many influences you’re eager to pay tribute to, and trying to cram them into the space of half an hour can often yield mixed results. In this instance, it sometimes feels like an intense focus has been placed on the direction of a song, whereas on other tracks there are too many brief indications of who Genovese wants to be regarded in the same vein as that none of them feel prominent enough to steer the course.
Slacker rock and shoegaze are big hitters across the record, as Genovese cites the likes of Stephen Malkmus and Hope Sandoval as major reference points, and while there are certainly moments where these reference points are handled with care, there are other moments where these expressions of admiration don’t translate into material that manages to stand out from the crowd. While she herself notes that she wanted the album to explore a darker and more uninhibited side to her personality, it only shines through in a handful of songs that appear to have got the memo about bringing out a sinister edge.
It should be commended that the album is honest about what it wants to be, but there are times where it simply wants to be too many things at once, and a sharpening of focus is what would ostensibly prevent future Freak Slug records from succumbing to the same occasional pitfalls.
For fans of: Hero worship, discovering the joys of air guitar, loosely thought-out Halloween costumes.
A concluding comment from the musically clued-up snail on my patio: “Understandably, we’re all big fans of slacker rock in the gastropod community, so I’m sure we’ll vibe with this. But I really wish people would stop calling me a freak.”
I Blow Out Big Candles track by track:
Release Date: November 8th | Producer: Alex Headford | Label: Future Classic
‘Ya Ready’: Despite being played on an acoustic guitar with a reverb-heavy sax, there’s an allusion to the grunge influence within the opening chord sequence before it dives into trip-hop territory. Genovese lays out all of the touchstones for the record here, as the pop and shoegaze elements also work their way into the production. [3.5/5]
‘Sexy Lemon’: A gentler affair that sees crunchy guitars underpin bedroom pop synth lines, but the occasional abstractness of lyrics like “she’s a sexy lemon with her long blonde hair, but she’s out of my reach ‘cos she’s out of this world’ isn’t enough to disguise the fact that they can come off as being quite pedestrian and elementary. [3/5]
‘Spells’: The song doesn’t divert too far from the plodding punk bassline that it builds itself around, but the occasional production flourishes on display such as the blood-curdling screams in the background highlighting the song’s spooky themes and the guitar tone that evokes memories of early Metronomy keep things exciting. [3/5]
‘Be Your Girl’: This song goes heavy on the dream pop influences while also nodding to modern acts like Nilüfer Yanya. The vocal melody is far from complicated, but between its simplicity, the bursts of noise in the chorus and the wistful strings, they coalesce to make this one of the standouts on the record. [3.5/5]
‘Get Away’: Throughout this track, it threatens to erupt into the big wall of fuzz and overdrive that the album has been threatening around every corner, but it doesn’t quite get there. That said, it’s one of the stronger cuts and the lilting guitar line in the chorus feels like an inspired moment. [3.5/5]
‘Shiver’: This track feels light in all aspects, and the production ideas that rescued some of the earlier tracks don’t come to the rescue here as a scant and undercooked vocal melody feels too delicate to make an impression. [2.5/5]
‘Hello’: The opening to this track brings in some jangle-pop sensibilities, but does eventually add the much longed-for noise explosion towards the latter half of the track. Think ‘Vaselines meets My Bloody Valentine’ for this one. [3/5]
‘Witch’: This takes the crown of the best song on the album, as it dares to do something a little different in terms of the structure and composition. A stumbling 6/8 time signature with some jazzy undertones show how adventurous Genovese’s sound has the capacity to be when it doesn’t place too much importance on replicating its idols. [4/5]
‘Piece Of Cake’: A little bit of whimsy doesn’t hurt, and this tune sits somewhere close to the darkly comic but sunny melodies of Stella Donnelly, with some of the previous influences also being recycled at times. The ‘boring boyfriend’ being compared to the ‘piece of cake’, i.e. something that’s nice to look at but offers little else is a fun concept. [3.5/5]
‘Ugly Smile’: This track might seem short and unfinished, as though it was left in a demo state, but it ties up the album well by reutilising the same palette of instruments as it began with, making for a coherently bookended album that falls short at times in the middle. [3.5/5]
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