- Joined
- Jun 13, 2005
- Messages
- 61,661
- Reaction score
- 25,802
I had no idea this girl has been releasing albums for years. I thought she made her little single, "Whip My Hair Back & Forth", and decided she didn't care for all the negative attention it brought despite its popularity. Didn't need it. Dad's got money.
Turns out, not only has she been making music, she's good. Hit and miss, but she's definitely got talent. She isn't chasing the charts. That's another perk of Dad having money. Of course, a bounty of great art throughout history was produced by the virtue of patronage. It's artistically liberating to make whatever you want without being worried about the next paycheck.
Being a Smith, she was always going to be the object of hatred no matter what she did, but I suspect many of her haters never listened to one song. Check this out. This is her biggest hit. She released the album two months after she turned 15, meaning it's likely she recorded this when she was just 14 years old.
That's a standout track on a mediocre album, but two of her more recent albums, Willow and <COPINGMECHANISM>, especially the latter, are damn good. The former album has more of a psychedelic pop sound. Feels like it draws more influences from the 60's and 70's, but I have trouble placing them:
Meanwhile, with the latter album, her most recent, she has leaned into a more neo-punk sound in the vein of Avril Lavigne, but slightly less pop. There are ska influences. She'll remind you of early Gwen Stefani at times on the album. I'm also sometimes reminded of a lot of 90's chick-rock like Tracy Bonham, Garbage, Hole, Sleater-Kinney. There are even flourishes of nu-metal reminding me of Evanescent. It's a phenomenal album. It deserves more attention. Here's its Spotify link:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0oMXn0MNLNyvB4iJPZXOuV?si=_nw_AjUBREe0mW4etBC1-g
Alternatively, here's it's YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7AyFRLdnY8qCIDYZZpSUFXiomHzvWqpw
In this pop punk rock vein she's favoring as she evolves she collaborated with Travis Barker last year:
