Wor$T Girl In America

セントルイス出身のシンガーソングライター=Slayyyter(スレーター)の 3rdアルバム『WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA』

セントルイス出身でLAを拠点とするシンガーソングライター=Slayyyter(スレーター)の、3枚目のフルアルバム『WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA』。彼女の、真理と進化の両方を象徴するアルバムとなっており、自身のルーツと、10代の頃に聴いたサウンドを再び探求し、原点に立ち返ることで生み出された、現在の彼女を捉えた作品。4月には、世界最大とも言われるコーチェラ・フェスへの出演が決定し、さらに、秋から始まる自身のヘッドラインツアーも行われる。精力的に活動する彼女に注目度は高まるばかりだ。

Slayyyter embraces the filthy, glamourous, Y2K-era electroclash soundtrack of her teenage years on her third album, 2026s WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA. Having emerged from SoundCloud obscurity with her early mixtape and gained club buzz with 2021s Troubled Paradise, the St. Louis-bred, Los Angeles-based singer continued to hone her sound, merging her unabashed 2000s pop influences with a sleek, 80s-inspired synth style on 2023s Starfucker; culminating in her cracking the Top Ten of Billboards Dance Albums chart. If those albums found her fusing the classic Britney Spears teen R&B sound with the wry, in-your-face swagger of Kesha, she takes it a step further on WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA. Collaborating primarily with producers Austin Corona and Wyatt Bernard, among several others, Slayyyter digs into a punky, dance club atmosphere, crafting a gloriously regressive and unabashed electroclash album. From the start, theres a feeling that she is reaching back into her past and ruminating on her coming-of-age in the mid-2000s and 2010s. Perhaps she felt like an outsider, perhaps she dated the wrong guys; no matter, there was the internet and bands like Justice and the Gossip and MGMT (all stylistic touchstones here) to keep her sane. Its a vibe she conjures from the start, first with "Dance...," a hypnotic banger built on a sinister NIN-esque synth-bass groove that feels like a hedonistic call to arms. A raw, red-eyed, late-night energy also marks "Beat Up Chanel$," where she details her state-of-mind, singing "I wanna dye my hair every pretty shade of pastel/I want nasty afterparties, banged up at the motel/I want beat-up Chanels, I want something for real." While the first half of the album certainly leans heavily into an over-driving synth and blown-out microphone speaker aesthetic, there are plenty of hooky, melodic moments to follow, as in shimmering, Ray of Light-era Madonna-isms of "Gas Station," the Blondie-esque "Unknown Loverz," and the Robyn-like "Old Fling$" with its rising EDM chorus. While Slayyyter certainly cribs from many of her dance influences on WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, she never fails to make them her own; a process that often invokes that famous quote about how good artists borrow, but great artists steal. Its a sentiment she underscores on "Old Technology," cooing over a buzzy rubberband synth and whipcrack beat, she sings "You heard the song straight, straight off my iPod/Straight off the Tumblr blog/I am a God, yes, sir." ~ Matt Collar