Album Review: Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time

Sky Ferreira
Night Time, My Time
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

21-year old Sky Ferreira is one of those up and coming pop stars that has so much bad luck following her that it is almost expected that her career will flame out in blaze of tabloid headlines. Following several singles and a left field electro pop hit with "Everything Is Embarrassing," Ferreira was seemingly in limbo, with many very public disputes with her record label, who wanted to mold her into the next Britney Spears, delays with the release of her album, and recently being arrested on drug charges with boyfriend Zachary Cole Smith of DIIV. With all this going on, I was completely expecting her debut Night Time, My Time to be an unholy mess of too many cooks in the kitchen. Was is most surprising well, aside from the fact it was released at all, is the fact that it is very cohesive and strong record, albeit one with some growing pains showing, but nothing that can't be remedied. What Night Time, My Time shows is that Ferreira is good at sculpting out her own personality and sound, leaning away from the overprocessed pop of singers like Katy Perry, Britney, Christina, et al, and heading more in the direction of alt-pop artists like Lorde. Charli XCX, and Lily Allen, more willing to take the piss out of the whole Top 40 game.

Working primarily with producer Ariel Rechtshaid (Solange, Haim, Charli XCX, Vampire Weekend, Usher), who knows how to brush up lesser known artists and stream-lining the successful ones, Ferreira finds her in good hands, giving the album focus and direction. What could have come across as a genre hopping mess, is a lazer sharp synthpop/fuzz guitar pop record that goes down relatively easy on the ears, with enough edge to keep it from seeming too polished. While there is nothing that matches the total charm and pop perfection that was "Everything Is Embarrassing," when Ferreira sticks to a lighter touch, the album is full of winners. "24 Hours" is a sparkly electro-pop track, that would easily have fit in the midst of the 80's alt-rock heyday with its fuzzy guitars, glittery keyboards, and Ferreira's skycraping vocals;



"Boys" is a delightful kiss-off to all the men who have disappointed her, taking cues from 50s girl groups, and pushing it through and more modern sensibility;



on "Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Ok)" the guitars and attitude get ramped up to 11;



while "Love In Stereo" is pure pop gorgeousness.



Along with these poppier numbers, Ferreira does indulge some more experimental leanings. With "Heavy Metal Heart" the pounding drums and squalling guitars are the perfect meat for Ferreira to sing her vocal teeth into;



the Clash leaning alt-reggae of "You're Not The One;"



and the title track, which is a somber, texturally rich ballad, the calls to mind late period Fiona Apple, and artists like PJ Harvey and Chelsea Wolfe.



For the most part Night Time, My Time is tonally consistent and never less than interesting, but certain tracks seem more like less fleshed out demos that end up fading into the background rather than asserting their own personality, whether it is the monotone guitar fuzz and vocals on "Kristine," lackluster 80s pop punk of "I Will," or the truly odd and droning "Omanko" which is 4:30 minutes of head-scratching weirdness.

But overall, it is a very good debut that thankfully does not sound even remotely overly thought out, or compiled by committee. While it has some missteps, they are more out of taking too much of a risk rather than being meek and timid. Night Time, My Time is a solid debut from Ferreira, and hopefully she can get her issues and troubles ironed out so that we hear a lot more from her in the future.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.