By Hannah Twery, contributor
Iggy Azalea’s “The New Classic” is her first studio album and like all Iggy fans, or Azaleans, I was super pumped for it. Her singles off the album that dropped months in advance were awesome. That video for “Fancy” where Iggy and Charli XCX recreated scenes from “Clueless” was awesome. So why isn’t this album as a whole awesome?
Don’t get me wrong, this album is good. It’s decent. However, it was definitely not what I, or most Azaleans, were expecting. Quite a few of the songs on the album are slow, something we are not used to when it comes to listening to Iggy.
I don’t know about you, but I was expecting way more songs that made me want to twerk the day away. Those songs are on the album, but not as many as I wanted. For instance, “F*** Love” is a club bangin’, booty poppin, go get drunk with your girlfriends and make dudes buy you drinks anthem. But compare that song to other songs on the album like “100” featuring Watch The Duck and “Impossible is Nothing,” the whole thing doesn’t sound like it goes together. It’s like they were all intended to be singles on separate albums . Also, a lot of these songs sound like they were produced by Diplo, staggering electronic music mixed with bounce tracks, which they weren’t. I don’t understand what the deal with that is.
Speaking of “100,” I had the album on as background noise the other day and I swear that the chorus sounds like The Lonely Island’s “Dick in a Box.” Is that just me? I tried to listen to the lyrics, and whoever this Watch The Duck dude is sounds like he’s saying “Imma give you a Honda” instead of “Girl you keep it a 100.” It was very hilarious.
On to things that Iggy has done well with this album, because there are some really great moments. For one, let’s applaud whoever made the decision to feature Rita Ora on “Black Widow.” Homegirl needs more recognition in the United States. Let’s also applaud the call to feature Charli XCX on “Fancy” because that girl is amazing. Iggy’s somewhat callous demeanor could be called feminism, but on the slick. She’s constantly talking about how she “don’t need no man,” she’s a “badass bitch/goddess” and how she’s “self-made honey!” That’s refreshing, considering the amount of misogyny that goes on in pop and rap music today. Four stars for you Iggy Azalea, you go Iggy Azalea.
Some tracks I recommend off “The New Classic”: “Fancy,” “Work,” “Change Your Life” featuring T.I., “Goddess,” “Black Widow” featuring Rita Ora and “F*** Love.”
Some tracks I thought sucked (but you should listen to them anyway): “100” featuring Watch The Duck, “Rolex” and “New B****.”