Spill Tab – ‘Angie’ album review: If the social media age were a record
THE SKINNY: Looking back over the events of the past five years, it seems like the world went into a permanent state of fever dreams. Between a pandemic, political uprisings, and an advancement of technology too terrifyingly rapid for anyone to keep up with, the current generation are turning to music, and specifically alt pop, more than ever in an attempt to make sense of the universe. Spill Tab is no different, manifesting this in her debut album, Angie.
The cynical among you will roll your eyes, in the wash of technological sonics and TikTok soundbites, what’s the need for more? It’s a salient argument in some respects, but the truth is that this is the firm direction the pop canon has been headed in long before the 2020s rolled around, and French-Korean singer Spill Tab, real name Claire Chica, is just the latest shiny package to roll off the production line.
Admittedly, Angie is characteristic of many of the pop counterparts that have come before it in recent years. But what Spill Tab also offers is an expansive eye to the world, on songs like ‘Assis’, for example, where she sings in her native French mother tongue, it adds a much-needed layer of texture to the record that makes it stand out as something far more flavourful than the standard modern romantic ruminations.
At the end of the day, is this album going to change the world and be universally loved? Probably not. But will it be lapped up by teenage girls, learning to take their place in the world through the microcosms of their bedrooms and the creative energies this stimulates? Absolutely, and that’s a far more potent force than you think. After all, we wouldn’t have stalwarts of the alt-pop canon like Billie Eilish, Caroline Polachek, and Clairo dominating the boards of the industry today if the muses of their adolescent universes hadn’t come first, and Spill Tab has all the makings of also building to those soaring heights.
But until then, we’ll have to make do with her learning the ropes through Angie, not an unpalatable record by any standard, but one that at times, excluding certain flashes of originality as aforementioned, risks falling into the ether of nothingness rather quickly. Without making myself sound like Spill Tab’s annoyingly out-of-touch teacher, she has a lot of potential, but just has to realise how to channel it in the right way.
For fans of: Discovering new music through social media: it’s no bad thing.
A concluding comment from Davina McCall on Big Brother: “Fancy another one?”
Angie track by track:
Release date: May 16th | Producer: David Marinelli | Label: Because Music
‘PINK LEMONADE’: It’s bright, youthful, scatty; the type of song that would drive your parents mental, but one that fizzes with an irreverent indulgence of youth that reminds you, sometimes music doesn’t have to be all that deep. [3.5/5]
‘Adore Me’: Is it Spill Tab or Billie Eilish singing this song? It’s a double-edged sword; a moody piano ballad that demonstrates the singer can emanate the top flight of the genre, but ultimately doesn’t leave enough of her own imprint. [3/5]
‘Assis’: Conversely, this is the true marker of what Spill Tab can offer. Weaving through lyrics in her mother tongue gives this song an instant edge, where you can imagine it being played everywhere from upmarket bars to the streets of Paris themselves. Plus, there’s nothing more romantic than the French language, is there? [4.5/5]
‘Athlete’: There’s nothing unpalatable about this; it’s lo-fi and slick with some pretty suave riffs, but it’s not likely that you’ll remember ‘Athlete’ long after listening to it. The very definition of middle of the road. [2.5/5]
‘by Design’: Those over-produced, computerised voices you sometimes hear on electronic-sounding tunes are either something you can get on board with or that just completely grate against you. Unfortunately for me, it’s the latter. The song’s switch halfway through into warm acoustics is far more pleasant, however, but begs the question of why such contrasting sonics have been mish-mashed together. [2/5]
‘Hold Me’: Angsty but with just the right amount of comforting glow emanating from its heart, this song is a much better demonstration of how sounds can be combined to create a stronger, more intricate, and textured approach. The type of song any teenage girl would lust over. [3.5/5]
‘Want Me’: Without meaning to be trite, this sounds like something you’d create in a high school music class, where you’d whack every single mad effect on the keyboard together and think you’d produced a masterpiece. If you’re shrouded in a rosy naivety, it’s great, but if those days are now but a distant memory, it’s just an indistinguishable blaze of sound. [1.5/5]
‘morning dew interlude’: Not to be dismissive of what is actually some pretty nice strings, but there is literally no purpose for this so-called ‘interlude’, other than to make the album 40 seconds longer than it really needed to be. [1/5]
‘Doesn’t That Scare You?’: Admittedly stronger than the last two efforts, Spill Tab takes a punt at showing her true vocal ability, and, for the most part, it does pay off. But the thing that really scares me, if you’re asking, is that none of this album pulls the punch it wants to, and risks being forgotten just as quickly as the length of most of its tracks. [3.5/5]
‘Angie’: The album gets its name from this song for good reason; it’s a delectable blend of electric, acoustic, and lo-fi beat that epitomises everything that the alt-pop canon stands for, and at last, doesn’t sound too formulaic. [4/5]
‘De Guerre’: Suddenly, we’re having a go at hardcore and grunge, with a bit of French rap thrown in for good measure? Ordinarily, I would criticise this for departing from the suit of the rest of the album, but it admittedly adds a healthy dose of diversity that will certainly prick up the ears, and that I’m not entirely mad about. [4/5]
‘wet veneer’: Again, this is something that could have easily landed on an album by Eilish, and you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell the difference. It’s introspective and angsty, perfect for a bit of teenage girl rage, but to the rest of the world, it just lacks a little bit of depth. [3/5]
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