Odes to teenage heartbreak often find themselves in a rose-tinted package. Instead, we had mood swings, one-way obsessions, and a face that was so ill-proportioned even Picasso would have scoffed in disgust.
What Baby Queen achieves in her upcoming debut, ‘The Yearbook’, is a truthful observation of the realities we faced. Because whilst “I’m still grieving the person I used to be,” (‘Baby Kingdom’) I’m more than happy not returning to the reality of that time. With an upbeat pop sound and her signature ironic wit, we’re left laughing at the harsh reality that we have suppressed.
The kitsch cover of satirical stereotypes sees Baby Queen embody the multitude of cliches that were oh-so-familiar to us in our youth. From cheerleader to emo, rocker to prom queen, we were all either painfully embarrassed to be labelled as one of these, or desperately aspired to brandish a tag. Because insecurity plagues those years, and all we want is to belong.
Default education and modern capitalist tropes beset our psyches, but Baby Queen blasts them apart. “I grew up kind of hating myself” she sings on ‘Narcissist’, but we don’t have to continue down this path. ‘The Yearbook’ finds Baby Queen curating a letter to her past self, one that we all need, to ensure that the cycle of romanticisation stops before it begins.
8/10
Words: Megan Walder
Dig This? Dig Deeper: Olivia Rodrigo, Blondie, Garbage
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