There is a kind of unwritten rule that says that complicated, passionate, disastrous, convoluted relationships produce exceptional albums. And the third album of Erika de Casier, “Still”, is no exception. But, unlike her first two albums, this time her doubts, contradictions and sensuality are not writhing in the privacy of her bed, of her room, but rather in a party that she herself seems to bring to an updated memory from 1999.
“It’s gonna be a lot of fun. Welcome to my party”. This is how she opens the fourteen cuts that catapult her as a new pop star. Although she maintains the hypnotic delicacy of her voice, we find a hard production that brings us closer to the universe of r&b and hip hop dance greats such as TLC, Mary J Blige or even the mischief of the Pussycat Dolls songs that were on the incessant rotation on MTV from the late 90s and early 2000s, without abandoning all its richness of details and textures.
Its clearest example is “ooh”, in which it seems that at any moment an immaculate choreography with low wide pants and fibrous bellies is going to appear. But when she looks at the past, she also reinvents it. The theme of her presentation, “Lucky”, containing a neat and shiny uk garage, it seems like something PinkPanteress wishes they had done. Or in “Home Alone”, with its marked drum machine and what looks like drops of water falling while she repeats “sexy, sexy, sexy,” it could fit into everything it didn’t. “The Joy” by Bad Gyal. And although the album plays between energetic chiaroscuros of sensuality and doubt, there is also time for its own version of ballads like “Anxious” o “Twice”, cwith some jazzier drums. In the latter it has the presence of Blood Orange, but he is not the only one. We also find collaborations from They Hate Change providing their rap signature, and Shygirl who has just raised the temperature to an album that burns on its own.