Troubled Paradise - Slayyyter: Review
Slayyyter
is an LA based pop singer who first blew up on SoundCloud with hard-hitting hyperpop and club fusions. These sounds were the core of her debut mixtape in 2019 but after singing with a major label and releasing a long lime of singles Slayyyter is finally gearing up to drop her first full studio album.
Review By Lav:
I've been riding with Slayyyter for a while now, ever since some of her earliest SoundCloud singles excited me as club ready pop bangers. While she has never been completely a hyperpop artist in the purist sense she is sounding less like it than ever before these days. While bangers are still in her catalog she is shooting for something much more "2000's radicalized" than the shape of hyperpop to come. This was a sonic transition that I didn't mind at all as it made her sound diverse, which was a desperate need coming into a studio album. After being shaky on a few of the singles coming into the record I sort of tempered my expectations, but when all is said and done what Slayyyter delivers here is surprisingly versatile and consistently rewarding.
The first five tracks on the record are all coming from a similar place to Slayyyter's debut mixtape and this is where we run into the records first two singles. The opening track Self Destruct was our first taste of the new album last year and if you follow the blog you'll know that I really love this song. Not only did it end up high on my singles list last year but I called it one of my favorite Slayyyter songs to date alongside Daddy AF, which is high praise. It has an unrivaled intensity that I can't get enough of and forms a sleek, sexy and uncompromising banger. This is followed by Venom another club ready hard-hitter that keeps up the infectious energy and bad bitch attitude. This song definitely has some hyperpop influence in the beat and Slayyyter's vocals are commanding throughout. I love this track for many of the same reasons I love Self Destruct.
Dog House has some verses that are incredibly slick and feature a number of hooky refrains that grab me from the moment the song kicks off. The beat once again has some deep club bass that I enjoy and Slayyyter's confident sexual demeanor is completely intoxicating. The hook on the track is just okay and I wish it had a little bit more too it but I still enjoy the track overall. Butterflies is under two minutes but I'm not sure why because it's quite a good track that still has more left in the tank. The beat isn't one of my favorites but I love the constant switching up of the refrains and I think its all quite catchy, making an impact despite its short length.
The only track I don't love from this section of the record is unfortunately Throatzilla, the records 2nd single. I used to have a problem with the lyrics being really dumbed down and while there's still a few bars that make me cringe I've kind of come around to some of the more hyper-sexualized bars. What I can't appreciate is the really lame hook that sounds like a mid 2000's pop song that would have been instantly forgotten. I can't believe this rhyme scheme actually made it onto this track and album and it makes it very difficult to enjoy the song as a sexy banger.
The back half of the record shifts the sound of the instrumentals to a more contemporary pop sound while also shifting the lyrical content from sexual to something more romantic, or occasionally romantically cautionary. Cowboys is the major highlight of the back half of the record a near perfect single that I've loved since I first heard it. The quiet verses are surpisingly memorable s Slayyyter emotionally lusts over the love in question before the pre-chorus sets up an absolutely killer hook. The attitude gets even more impressive on the amazing bridge which sees Slayyyter sounding like a total badass once again. The shift in tone from verse to hook catches me every single time and the song hasn't lost an inch of its luster with listen after listen. Over This! was the most recent single and one of the track that most directly pulls from the 2000's but in a great way. The blown out hook and incredibly memorable melody are some of my favorite things on the entire record but the verses are no slouch either as they set up a short but memorable bridge and add a ton to the already amazing hook. This is the records best blend of general pop sentimentality with some of the more harder hitting elements we've come to expect from Slayyyter's music.
There are some other big highlights in the back half as well starting with Serial Killer. It is sneakily one of the longer and more interesting songs on the record with a simple hook backed by a meditative instrumental that gives the song s really intoxicating sound. On top of this it's one of the most thematically strong tracks on the record with its title theme running throughout the lyrical content. I actually love the digitized bridge and the spacious mix on the song it really helps everything sound genuinely eerie. While I'm no stranger to complaining about ballads closing off pop albums since they're never grand enough to warrant it, Letters is actually a pretty good tune. Given how much time Slayyyter spends acting tough in her music seeing her slipping her vulnerabilities into the music both lyrically and vocally, with only slight touch ups to her performance, is very compelling. It's a change of pace that makes the song feel special as a finale. Sometimes the instrumental does feel a little too light as if she's performing in a vacuum but the back half of the song is genuinely beautiful and ends the record off in the right way.
The last two singles we haven't talked about yet are ones that I didn't love at first but have slightly grown on me since. Troubled Paradise is the first track on the album so go in a more romantic direction but it still delivers some of those bouncy club beats in the instrumental, although with a glossier presentation. I see the hook as being quite a bright spot for the song and it sounds more hooky now than when I first heard it. I also like it more in the context of the record because it works as a title track and centerpiece blending together the records two distinct sections well. I was even more iffy about Clouds which has become sort of a hit since its release a few months ago. Once again it's the hook that is really carrying the track and it certainly is a good hook. I kind of wish the theme of the track could have carried into the beat and been made slightly cloudier or more atmospheric. The instrumental here sounds like so many of the others across the record just less interesting. I've come to really enjoy parts of the song but in the context of the album it's just okay.
Villain is definitely the worst song on the entire album and it totally fails at pulling off the digitized sound of Serial Killer. The instrumental isn't bad particularly on the hook where it gets pretty jittery but the mix is really lacking all over the song. The vocal effects are very grating and the distortion rumbling away in the background isn't really working in the compelling manner of something like a PC Music song. The songwriting isn't great but I think I could stomach it if it weren't for the rough mix and badly interpolated effects.
Troubled Paradise is a really solid introduction to the world of true to form pop music from an artist who has seemed fit for a breakout for years. On the first half of the record Slayyyter proves that she can still make the sexually charged ragers that her name was originally made on, but she shows off a ton of versatility when you view the entire albums tracklist as a whole. Not only are the songs good but they're elevated by Slayyyter's prescence as an emotional character whose tone shifts and evolves throughout the records well assembled tracklist. The record feels like Slayyyter living up to the potential she has always put on display, and setting up for something even better that may be coming on the horizon and I can't wait to see where she goes next. 8/10
This cover is cute but doesn't really shine for me. All the elements are there but coming from her previous covers I'm not excited. The colors are vibrant and she looks gorgeous but its just a downgrade from what I would've expected from her. 5/10
