Over the past ten years, the music industry has evolved drastically from scouting open mics to scouting the Internet for fresh talent. YouTube seems to be the secret to a quick rise to fame, with artists singing to a webcam in the living room one minute and performing at Madison Square Garden the next. Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen rose from MySpace fame, and our favorite teeny bopper to hate on, J. Biebs, also started as a YouTube star. And they each say the same thing: “It all happened so fast!”
What about the artists that the Internet isn’t working fast enough for? Enter Sky Ferreira, who recently released her first album, Night Time, My Time, which has been six years in the making. Ferreira was also a MySpace find and signed to Capitol Records after getting in touch with Swedish production duo Bloodshy and Avant. But then Ferreira’s music career started moving at a grueling pace; not the usual MySpace story. She released a bunch of singles, but nothing seemed to stick. The glamor of being an Internet sensation can only last so long if it isn’t soon followed by an album release, and Ferreira kept coming up short.
Then, last year, Ferreira came out with “Everything is Embarrassing” on her EP Ghost, which finally caught the attention of the indie scene. Suddenly she was BFFs with Vampire Weekend, touring with the band and appearing in the music video for “Diane Young,” and an album was finally announced to be in the works.
Here we are, six years after her MySpace discovery, and Ferreira, now 21, has just released her first album. She finally has twelve full songs that show her true style and give her career momentum.
“I think I’ll feel a lot better once my album comes out,” Ferreira said in an interview with Fuse right before the album was released. “I’m not saying that I need to prove myself, but [to] show that I’m actually an artist more so than a face.”
Herein lies the problem: fans have been getting used to that face for a long time now. Ghost prepared them for a misty, low-key soundtrack. But Night Time is Ferreira’s time, and she did not hesitate to let six years of frustration out on her long-awaited album.
The album begins with “Boys,” which follows a pretty typical pop song formation with some heavier instrumental rock elements. It’s a little harsher than “Everything is Embarrassing,” but not unrecognizable. Ferreira’s voice is still breathy, never straining too much. Then we move to “Ain’t Your Right,” and the formula continues. It’s satisfying but in no way impressively creative.
“24 Hours” picks things up, bringing in some ’80s pop influences. Ferreira keeps her nonchalant tone over the synths in the verses but brings more emotion into the chorus and rounds out the whole of her gorgeous voice.
The middle of the album is the height of Ferreira’s angst, with “Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay)” and “I Blame Myself.” The former has remnants of one Avril Lavigne’s teen anthems with an updated twist. “Shakin’ your head while I try to explain/ You say you don’t want to hear me complain/ Just tryna get my point across/ You don’t seem to care if I’m feeling lost,” she sings, gearing up to belt the titular chorus. The song can easily be about frustration in having to wait so long to get what she wanted: an album to declare herself an artist. However, the song itself doesn’t seem to be helping her case.
Not only that, but it doesn’t seem to fit with Ferreira’s past musical choices. Sky Ferreira has had the “bad girl” image going for her from the beginning, but it was in a more blasé way (see the “Diane Young” video, with Ferreira sulking at the table in a leather jacket blowing her bubblegum, even when the dance party starts). It seems that she’s making up for lost time to record a song filled with teenage angst, even though she’s now 21.
“I Blame Myself” has similar self-pity lyrics (“I blame, I blame, I blame myself / For my reputation” she sings in the chorus), but the song’s aesthetic loses the metallic influences from “Nobody Asked Me” and adds back in the electro-pop background that seems to fit more with Ferreira’s past work.
Skip down to “You’re Not the One,” the single off the album, where Ferreira finally hits the nail on the head. She uses similar ’80s pop influences as she does in “24 Hours” but brings in rhythmic variation that previous songs were missing. A heavy bass compliments a light and airy synth, showing that she’s frustrated while still playing it cool. Finally the listener can feel for her while still dancing along and without being sucked into her high school dropout diary.
The rest of the album continues to play this back-and-forth between mysterious sounds that bring us back to Ghost (“Omanko,” “Night Time, My Time,” and especially “Love In Stereo”) and harsher rants that reflect Ferreira’s resentment (“Heavy Metal Heart,” “Kristine,” and “I Will”). While my personal preference tends toward a gentler Ferreira, perhaps the artist she has been hoping people to see is a little angrier after all. Whether it’s what you’re expecting or not, Ferreira will win you over in the end with her awesome vocals and the fact that she’s sticking true to her gut, no matter how long it took her to get here.