Initially signed by Capitol Records as a potential successor to Britney Spears at the age of 15, Sky Ferreira’s career has since lurched from one false start to another. Her synth-pop-inspired debut album was originally intended to hit the shelves back in 2011 but instead dribbled out as an E.P. named As If! Her 2012 hipster-friendly second attempt suffered the same fate. While despite all the blogosphere hype, she still remains arguably more famous for her recent drugs bust than her music. However, after years of being stuck in development hell, the 21-year-old has finally come of defining pop age and has been given the green (and naked) light to prove her worth with the long-awaited Night Time, My Time. Here’s a look at five lyrics which allude to all the behind-the-scenes chaos.
‘Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay)’
Having previously admitted that she was forced to record her proper launch single, “Obsession,” against her will, work so hard she regularly fell asleep in interviews and abandon any trace of her true personality during her early teen-pop phase, an understandably irate Ferreira asks why no-one at the time took her feelings into consideration. However, as the pleas for compassion become increasingly louder, whinier and brattier, it becomes increasingly difficult to muster any sympathy: [LISTEN]
‘I Blame Myself’
Aware that her string of modelling contracts, socialite lifestyle and recent arrest alongside boyfriend and DIIV frontman Zachary Cole Smith have inevitably taken the focus away from her music, an impressively clued-up Ferreira acknowledges that her off-the-field behavior hasn’t done her career any favors. However, the album’s most bubblegum moment isn’t entirely all apologies as she also issues a riposte to the ‘haterz’ who have no experience of ‘fighting the hounds of hell’: [LISTEN]
‘I Will‘
Possibly addressing the controlling men in suits who demanded that she acted ‘blank but godly,’ ‘wholesome but sexy’ and ‘relatable but not offensive’ at the time of her first mainstream push, Ferreira threatens to hunt down those who expected to her behave in a particular way and give them a taste of her own medicine on a vengeful and increasingly intense blend of post-punk basslines, new wave beats and sinister horror movie synths: [LISTEN]
‘Night Time, My Time’
About as far removed from the hedonistic trash pop of LMFAO’s narcissism as you could hope for, Ferreira declares that she’s ‘useless and she knows it’ on another self-disparaging dirge which suggests that despite the supremely confident exterior, she still has certain self-esteem issues. The wall of sound which consumes her subsequent stream-of-consciousness, a creepy mix of pagan folk and shoegazey drones, only adds to the overwhelming sense of despair: [LISTEN]
‘Kristine’
Only Ferreira is likely to know exactly what this avant-garde and mostly incoherent slab of noise-pop is about. But she and her imaginary friend/alter ego Kristine certainly appear to spend a fair amount of its bolshy two-and-a-half minutes satirizing the ‘no work, all play’ party girl lifestyle which she’s often been accused of leading, suggesting that her ‘classic downtown IT girl‘ persona has now been retired alongside her several previous failed incarnations: [LISTEN]
