Slayyyter - STARFUCKER (Deluxe)

elektroxx

elektroxx

he / him
After listening to the album as a whole, I see what y'all mean about "Tear Me Open" feeling out of place on STARFUCKER. That being said, I still love it and think that it deserves to be on here. Aside from the singles, "Girl Like Me," "My Body" and "Tear Me Open" are probably my Top 3. "Dramatic" and "Memories Of You" both slap and "Rhinestone Heart" is pure camp.

Unfortunately, not all of my thoughts are positive. I don't love "Plastic" and I kind of wish that we'd gotten "Rainbow Road" or "Tommy" instead.
 
Dan!

Dan!

he/him
Everyone who downloaded the leak better have the vinyl making its way to their residence tomorrow/on 13th October (date subject to change)

latoya-right-now.gif
 
mindtrappa

mindtrappa

he/him
This album is brilliant front to back. Like @DirtyPornStar said: this is a bonafide, old school maximalist 2010s pop record in a way that nobody mining that era has quite managed to pull off in such an earnest way. But it also feels current without bending to what's trending. That felt pretty clear just off the singles, but the whole project is just as ambitious and sounds just as expensive, and it never strays from that vision. There's no skips. Although "Rhinestone Heart" comes closest for me, but Slayyyter still sells the shit out of it and I can for sure see it growing on me with repeated listens.

She's also managed to strike a balance between grittier club tracks and slickly produced pop. They sit next to each other and don't sound out of place. Her mixtape actually does this pretty well too, which is to say I feel like this album is very much giving an elevated version of that. Like she clawed her way up from that tanning bed to that penthouse on the album cover. Kind of makes me want her to go in and (Cathy's Version) that project with the crew behind this one. I think she had some difficulty meshing the ideas on Troubled Paradise, which felt very much like two different albums sewn together, even though the songs individually and the concept itself were great.

Finally, this album is so visual? I can see music videos and performances for every song playing in my head, and I'm fully in the fantasy she's giving me, which will prove useful until Fader opens their purse. Maybe Prince and Beyoncé were on to something. Anyway, I'm so glad this is out and that it's even better than I could have imagined. I'd say it's pretty much on lock as my favorite pop album released this year.
 
DirtyPornStar

DirtyPornStar

he/him
I'm actually kinda surprised y'all find Tear Me Open an outlier on this album, not only is it one of my highlights, but it pretty much suits the femme fatale (the trope not the album ddd) fantasy she's channeling with Starfucker. I feel like it's even reiterated in the album's closer, Out Of Time, with how the two verses paint completley opposing pictures of what it's like to be an ingénue in LA.

Like @mindtrappa said, she did such a great job of marrying her different sounds with this record. Purr and Plastic are soo fun and such natural extentions from Venom and Doghouse, while still geling with the rest of the album's vibe.
 
mindtrappa

mindtrappa

he/him
DirtyPornStar said:
I'm actually kinda surprised y'all find Tear Me Open an outlier on this album, not only is it one of my highlights, but it pretty much suits the femme fatale (the trope not the album ddd) fantasy she's channeling with Starfucker. I feel like it's even reiterated in the album's closer, Out Of Time, with how the two verses paint completley opposing pictures of what it's like to be an ingénue in LA.

Like @mindtrappa said, she did such a great job of marrying her different sounds with this record. Purr and Plastic are soo fun and such natural extentions from Venom and Doghouse, while still geling with the rest of the album's vibe.
Click to expand...

It's so essential. "Tear Me Open" works with what feels like an arc where "Erotic Electronic", "Purr", "Plastic", and "Girl Like Me" play out as peak delusion and destructive behavior, maybe as a result of heartbreak. Those four tracks are a total high that keeps building before it comes crashing down to reality and letting love or even fame consume her to the point of total destruction. If the album were an erotic thriller, the main character would probably be killed at this point. "Out of Time" sums it all up so well and acts as a cautionary tale.
 
Sam

Sam

he/they
Solid agree that Tear Me Open is a standout, both in that it’s fantastic but also the only subdued moment on the record. Sonically it’s the perfect song to let you catch your breath from the absolute whiplash of the past 10 songs. A great little moment for you to gather yourself before the absolute stomper that’s Out of Time comes crashing in, tying everything up and leaving you battered, bald and bruised.

I’m really thrilled with this whole affair to be honest. I loved Clouds and Troubled Paradise but for some (admittedly unhinged) reason I just never listened to the rest of that album. I don’t know if I heard Throatzilla and Cowboys and just decided the rest wasn’t for me, but Starfucker has had me in a chokehold since the first teaser of Miss Belladonna (ahhhh!) dropped. I’ll definitely be diving into the back catalogue once I’ve had my initial fill of this. I never even listened to the mixtape at all.

5 stars from me. Easily.

Oh and Rhinestone Heart’s been stuck in my head all day
 
Applause

Applause

The album feels like you're spending a week with your aspiring artist friend who just moved to the city of angels. The songs alternate between clear-minded yet rose-colored moments where she muses on heartbreak, and moments where you're at the club muddling through electro beats and techno drops on your way to do lines off the toilet with her after excusing yourselves out of the conversation you were just having with some shady dude who swears he's an agent and could turn the both of you into superstars overnight. And everything about it has this delicious late-80's, early-90's static and foggy neon running through it all, almost like you know that the girl this album is about comes back home every night with her dreams shattered yet again to watch The Tonight Show hosted by Joan Rivers and her ridiculously huge but timely hair. Or maybe she's in the mood to see if tonight is the night she finally finds out who killed Laura Palmer, and so she puts on Twin Peaks instead. She knows she is sickening in her makeup and her heels and her little black dress, but she also knows she's terribly alone and her time is running out.

This is her best effort at world-building and the crafting of a body of work, and it doesn't even feel premature to induct it in the pop canon.
 
RJF

RJF

I'm still collecting my thoughts on the album (and waiting for the official version because I'm not sure what I listened to was remotely final fffff) but the thought I had that I couldn't let go of was that... This is Lady Gaga's second album in a world where The Fame bombed. The beats, the intelligence masquerading in silliness, the deification of celebrity and LA, and most importantly the product of someone who loves and respects pop music.

There are so many people out there making pop music with no love for pop music. That is not the case here. It's one of those great albums we get occasionally (The last one probably being... Future Nostalgia? I don't think Renaissance counts because it is very upfront as in intricate, complicated album.) that is so simply great on the surface but also operating at such an obscenely high level in terms of pop fan pleasure receptors that only we get it. A genuine If You Get It You Get It kinda thing. People on the outside are restricted by a ceiling where this will only ever be good at best. For us, the sky is the limit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top