From the opening kick drum of “I Love Hollywood!,” the LA-based artist has you gripped firmly by the shoulders. Dripping in synths, overlaid in transportive techno beats, the record is a guided tour through Slayyyter’s state of mind, from the depths of a bag to the highs of a good time – there are even fleeting visits to her more vulnerable moments.
Opener “I Love Hollywood!” picks apart the toxic underpinnings of the west coast party scene: drugs, skipped meals, and inflated social currency. It’s also a banger straight out the gate, chased down just as quickly by “Miss Belladonna.” The chorus is so thick it’s like syrup, oozing hedonism as Slayyyter laments that “he lives for love and I live for drama.” Elsewhere, “Rhinestone Heart” and “Girl Like Me” deliver two more slices of full-bodied girl pop. “Memories Of You” keeps pace, but veers from the carefree escapism that has so far dominated the album’s focus. Slayyyter misses her ex, and she’s not afraid to admit it.
Later, “Tear Me Open” winds the energy down for a similar tonal departure. Confessing that she wants to be with the object of her love forever, regardless of the pain that could bring, it’s quite the change from the flippant disregard of “Dramatic,” where she claims to be “faithful to whoever’s asking.”
Slayyyter’s sense of humour becomes more pronounced towards the latter half of the record: “Purrr” turns an erratic, maximalist din into an undeniable hipshaker, while “Plastic” pays an astonishingly frank tribute to the beauty supplied by a doctor’s needle. She’s just as unabashed on closing track “Out Of Time” – the big finish – where she concludes that “she hates herself / but if they all love her then she don’t mind”. The second part, certainly, is true.
Posting a very respectable 35 minutes in length, Slayyyter’s not here to waste time or mess around: STARFUCKER is an express delivery of utterly skipless dance belters. Plant your feet and let your mind melt.
