Blu DeTiger - All I Ever Want Is Everything

Half a decade on from her first single, the debut from highly sought-after bassist Blu DeTiger is a genre-hopping work, anchored unsurprisingly by infectious basslines. While the listener is ushered into the album by a twinkling lullaby-like intro, with mesmeric harmonies, it’s second track ‘Latency’ that’s perhaps the biggest rock moment on the album - her vocal delivery reminiscent of erstwhile bandmate Olivia Rodrigo - before ‘I’ll Never Tell’ pulls from the bedroom pop of PinkPantheress. Across the record, the New York-via-Ibiza artist’s influences are many and varied, with the album veering into disco, funk, pop rock, dance, electroclash and beyond. Recent single ‘Cut Me Down’, a collaboration with Australian musician Mallrat, is an all-out dance track with a crisp production, while ‘Expensive Money’ is another highlight, a bubblegum pop bop that thrives on its simplicity. It’s when Blu leans into the disco and funk genre, though, that she really shines: ‘Sad Girl Machine’ and ‘Disappearing’ are both stand-outs, imbued with groovy bass lines, which Blu mixes with modern lyrical themes of doom-scrolling and social media. But where the record is musically interesting, it is short on hooks: synth-pop songs drift by, Blu’s voice drowning in the mix, while ‘You Say’ is marred by its misguided use of autotune, as it fizzles into distortion. By the time ‘All I Ever Want is Everything’ comes to an end, it feels as though it’s not quite finished, an ambitious album sometimes attempting to do too much at once.