BOTW Review: Jessy Lanza – Pull My Hair Back
Jessy Lanza’s debut album, Pull My Hair Back, cruises into the room with first track ‘Giddy’. Sleazy and sexy, it’s a slowly growing number that eases you into Pull My Hair Back and is the start of a recurring theme across the album: sex appeal. It oozes from Lanza’s voice throughout, while the record’s sumptuous production suggests that this new addition to the Hyperdub family is going to fit in very well indeed.
The album itself is as minimal as it is heavy. It’s intelligent pop; the listener isn’t given the usual electro-by-numbers soup that seems to flood the charts (I’m looking at you Disclosure) and instead the result is a far more ethereal affair. Co-written and co-produced by Jeremy Greenspan from Junior Boys, each song is technically well-crafted and Lanza’s voice is sweet without giving you cavities.
Indeed, the sex factor is pretty hard to avoid in this album. Track by track you’re left feeling hotter under the collar, with drum machine syncopation and suggestive synths creating a heady mix, all brought together wonderfully by Lanza’s voice. On that note, it’s hard not to draw parallels to Debbie Harry and even earlier Madonna material when listening to Pull My Hair Back. ‘Keep Moving’ is unashamedly 80s and would be just as at home in a 40th birthday DJ set as it would be a dark, dingy and oh-so-cool East London basement party.
The title track is more of the same and I somewhat doubt that when Jessy asks her ‘baby’ to, “pull my hair back”, it’s so that she can vom in a nightclub toilet. So, I suppose all-in-all Jessy Lanza is pretty filthy. She makes no secret of that. But this filth is pretty damn good and any cheap tricks seem to have been overpowered by intelligent production and satisfyingly good songs. I just wouldn’t introduce Jessy to your mother anytime soon…
– Liz Ward
