Anne-Marie - Speak Your Mind

The Guardian 60

(Asylum)

Can you really come from deepest Essex and pull off tropical pop? Judging by the views and streams Anne-Marie has amassed so far, both for collaborations (Rudimental, Clean Bandit and, more lately, Marshmello) and her own tracks, the conclusion would have to be yes, and not to get our thongs in a twist about cultural appropriation.

Anne-Marie’s relentlessly commercial debut album scoops up previous hit singles Alarm, Heavy and Ciao Adios. The remainder of the offering stays glued to the template: international R&Caribbean, unanchored from any actual island, made by email by teams of tune serfs and probably handed to Rihanna’s people for first refusal. Naturally, this being a UK product, Ed Sheeran co-writes a hazily nostalgic urban ballad called 2002.

Sun Apr 29 07:00:36 GMT 2018

The Guardian 40

(Asylum Records)

‘Are you impressed with my honesty?” enquires Anne-Marie on Perfect, a smug self-love anthem that soon descends into decidedly unimpressive lyrical filler (bizarre padding includes the detail that she’d like to take her family to an Eminem concert). It’s not the only jarring moment on the former Rudimental vocalist’s debut: 2002, co-written with Ed Sheeran, is an inane dose of millennial nostalgia that strings together song titles from the era in horribly awkward style, while on Machine, the Essex singer outs herself as possibly the only person living in our tech-deluged, late-capitalist society who wishes they more closely resembled a computer. She’s more coherent when picking at heartbreak-related wounds, but the top notes of braggadocio and venom mean these songs don’t end up quite as life-affirming as their imperious choruses would have you believe. It’s all packaged in fashionably sterile pop parcels, the kind where the beats are harsh and crisp, and synths and alien-sounding vocal samples pepper the void.

Related: Anne-Marie: the platinum Essex pop star fighting anxiety and body shame

Fri Apr 27 09:30:42 GMT 2018