After her rapid ascendance to stardom with the song ‘Stupid’ bringing her to TikTok fame in 2019, here is her first mixtape, consisting of somewhat cringey songs made for TikTok virality. The album acts as a sad simulacrum of female empowerment anthems which are so paper-thin that, with a small amount of research, falls apart at the seams like the t-shirt you just bought from Primark.
The lead single Daisy is likely the best track on the entire album, with the bad b*tch vibe that made up the entire first EP and follow up singles. It’s short, punchy and fits in perfectly with her e-girl, TikTok aesthetic whilst still being listenable, it is quite predictably her most popular track ever. The production is ultimately passable, nothing to write home about, in comparison to other artists in similar positions to her who have better composition and more interesting sound design. The vast majority of this album feels like filler, with the following tracks Toxic, Deal With It and Slumber Party falling through me like water through a sieve. The next notable track is Drunk With My Friends, which brings us back to two of the four horsemen of the pop apocalypse: sex and drugs. Whilst Little Boy is likely the most ironic song on the entire album when looking at the album from a more holistic perspective. Cry features producer and singer Grimes who is hardly used in her work for hire state as a strange ethereal verse that can be put on any song looking for a quirky, but also a well known pop star. The production is as generic as any other song on the album and hardly stands out even with Grimes, who is unable to pull the track back from its complete mediocrity.
While much of the album has been ultimately boring or ok at best, the last three tracks seem to be put there as an attempt to simply make this mixtape pass 20 minutes. L8r Boi is a weird rendition of early 2000s pop-punk hit Sk8r Boi by Avril Lavinge and is ultimately bastardised into a stripped-down emo-rap instrumental with lyrics more akin to the fantasy’s of a new-age female incel than the empowering feminist anthem I suppose it was trying to be. Good While It Lasted makes up the last of this album’s 4 filler tracks, with Clitoris: The Musical! finishing the album with semi-serious lyrics over a Melanie Martinez like beat. Many questions come to mind while listening to this track such as; Why does Ashnikko not communicate with those she has intimate relations with, which TV shows have men openly jerking off and why, when I look up the credits, is this entire album made by men?
Many reviews state this album to be dismantling misogyny, an honestly ridiculous claim when it has been produced, mixed and mastered by men. It’s the height of TikTok feminism, meant to be simplified to a 15-second shareable clip with a trendy beat and dance to go with it. It is female empowerment, made by men and packaged for teenage girls.
