Peppa’s Adventures: The Album, the second LP by UK singer-songwriter and television star Peppa Pig, arrives at a critical moment for the young artist. Only 4 years old, and one of very few pigs working in the music industry today, Peppa’s rise has been as rapid as it was unlikely. Her 2019 debut, My First Album, was an unexpected smash upon release. The record racked up 136 million streams, reached No. 1 on the UK Independent Albums Breakers chart, and won accolades from fellow pop renegades Charli XCX and Lil Nas X. As Peppa readied her sophomore effort, critics wondered: Was My First Album a fluke? Or is Peppa equipped to play in the UK’s crowded pop big leagues, alongside more established stars like Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran?
On My First Album, Peppa made a careful study of Brian Wilson’s sunny melodies and progressive pop structure. She hews closely to this formula throughout Peppa’s Adventures, particularly on the wistful “Perfect Day” and on “Recycling,” which evokes Fiona Apple in its percussive use of glass bottles and tin cans. Reaching further into pop’s past, she interpolates British and American folk music on the cheery “The School Bus Song” and the contemplative “Winter Days.” The traditionalist approach to production pairs well with Peppa’s efficient songwriting. She’s adept at mining the mundane stuff of suburban life for glittering moments of camaraderie. “Perfect Day” celebrates the simple pleasures of friendship, particularly poignant after more than a year of social distancing. “Digging With Mr. Bull” turns the inconvenience of road construction into an exhilarating block party. Loveliest of all is “North Star Lullaby”; Peppa wrote the elegant, understated song for her 2-year-old brother, George. “I’d fly to space if I had wings,” she sings, her voice a near-whisper, “and play with George on Saturn’s rings.” The lullaby’s verses, written in iambic tetrameter, demonstrate a gift for poetic construction well beyond her years.
Yet Peppa’s Adventures is most compelling when Peppa departs from her standard chamber-pop formula. Lead single “Bing Bong Champion” is an ambitiously maximalist shot across the bow at those who called My First Album a Sarah Records retread. A tribute to sport in a fraught Olympic year, it moves with the grand air of Taylor Swift’s “State of Grace.” Chimes and brassy horns abound, but Peppa, a nimble vocalist, ably holds her own. On the bridge, she assumes the role of coach and leads her backing singers in rhythmic cheering. It is among her best work to date.
Similarly expansive is the opener and title track, “Peppa’s Adventures,” a celebration of the natural world. Like her contemporary Lorde’s “Solar Power,” the song throws off the past year’s miseries and flies through life with every pore open. “Adventures” relies heavily on a fiddle riff that recalls, or perhaps revives, the heyday of Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers, and Edward Sharpe. It’s a little gauche and though it doesn’t quite sink the song, it does raise questions about Peppa’s taste.
This minor concern aside, Peppa has proven herself a graceful navigator of a pop scene often hostile to her species. When My First Album debuted, in 2019, on the same day as Iggy Azalea’s In My Defense, Azalea cruelly threatened to turn Peppa into “a breakfast special.” In light of such attacks, Peppa’s unapologetic embrace of her identity is all the more inspirational. She oinks without shame; she celebrates “jumping in muddy puddles” on no fewer than four of this record’s nine tracks. “Birdy Birdy Woof Woof” demolishes preconceived notions about animal vocalists—“The birds go woof, and the dogs go tweet!”—as Peppa enlists friends and frequent collaborators Suzy Sheep, Pedro Pony, and Candy Cat to sing in one another’s styles.
The other political moments of Peppa’s Adventures are not as successful. “Recycling,” for all its delightful percussive flourishes, fails to consider the impact of the UK’s recycling programs on Southeast Asia, where landfills overflow with Western waste. A brief reference to private spaceflight in “The School Bus Song” is similarly ill-advised, given that billionaire astronauts continue to exploit the working-class and classroom-working listeners whom Peppa courts.
Peppa is, of course, a very young artist; one hopes that she will refine her political sensibility as she matures. Her influence, within and beyond the pop scene, is immense. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Peppa’s most devoted American fans have developed British accents and adopted her slang. Peppa seems to have borne up remarkably well in this position of influence, with all its attendant pressures. She clearly benefits from the closeness of her family and friends, who appear throughout Peppa’s Adventures. As her profile rises, and her music reaches an even wider audience, Peppa will need their support to stay grounded. If her abundantly successful new record signals one thing, it is this: Peppa is some pig.
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