Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time

Sky Ferreira was going to release her debut album in 2011. Then in 2012, and finally after a mid-2013 release date looked increasingly unlikely, shelled out her own cash to head in the studio with producers Ariel Rechtshaid and Justin Raisen – where, ironically, a record that’s been over four years in the making took a matter of weeks to complete. Even the late 2013 Stateside release of ‘Night Time, My Time’ appeared reluctant.

That’s enough to test anyone’s patience – there must’ve been plenty of points where it’d have felt easier to give in, to release a mish-mash of everything until that point. There was already the brilliant ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’, recorded with Brit super-producer Dev Hynes, and material recorded with producers Jon Brion and Greg Kurstin, plus 90s alt-pop queen Shirley Manson.

Thank heavens Sky stuck to her guns: ‘Night Time, My Time’ is a triumph.

Mixing ‘pop’ and ‘indie’ isn’t easy; purists from either side will spot a fraud a mile-off. In just twelve tracks, Sky’s mastered it. In one she’s indie Kylie, Debbie Harry’s solo career, a dab of Kim Wilde and Cyndi Lauper. The songs master an equally difficult skill – they’re on universal themes (love, mostly – save a few thinly-veiled references to being out of control of her own destiny) but they’re as confrontational as they are fun. “Boys, I love ‘em / boys, they’re dime a dozen”, she pouts on ‘Boys’, while ‘Kristine’ satirises “A giant comedy with museums and movies with / Hedi, the routines of the young millionaires”.

Her choice of production team is spot-on, too, Rechtshaid and Raisen matching Sky’s own Urban Oufitters-meets-Tumblr grunge aesthetic perfectly at every point. It’s slick where it needs to be (see ‘I Blame Myself’, ‘Love In Stereo’) and gorgeously fuzzy elsewhere (the suitably industrial ‘Omanko’ and ‘Heavy Metal Heart’). It’s part dreamy, part hungover on the closing title track.

In short, ‘Night Time, My Time’ is stunning. Night time might be Sky’s time, but this record couldn’t belong to anyone else.