Mallrat - Light hit my face like a straight right

At the core of ‘Light hit my face like a straight right’ lies an elusive tension. This follow-up to Mallrat’s 2022 debut ‘Butterfly Blue’ is, on the surface, a collection of dance-inflected yet otherwise largely conventional singer-songwriter fare, taking cues from both the plaintive whisper stylistics of bedroom pop production and the warped world of hyperpop. For the most part, this leads to a result somewhere between unexceptional and satisfactory; there’s nothing quite so present as to irritate, but the combination of understated delivery and vocal effects can’t help but echo the production discography of AG Cook, usually accompanied by the kind of immediate pop hooks not found here (see ‘Defibrillator’ or ‘Ray of Light’). Similarly, the use of textures closer to that of more traditional singer-songwriter styles, such as on ‘Pavement’ and the emo-lite ‘The Worst Thing I Would Ever Do’, highlight an otherwise immaterial lyrical simplicity. And yet, when the record does hit a stride, it’s also not where it is strongest. The former comes when the musical marriage between dancefloor beats and Mallrat’s subdued delivery creates a bedroom-as-club mood: the infectious chorus of ‘Hocus Pocus’; the claustrophobic repetition of ‘Love Songs / Heart Strings’; the subtle euphoria of ‘Hideaway’. They’re all still pastel-hued headphone moments, but with scope for a personal silent disco. It’s closer ‘Horses’, however, that stands out: both as the record’s strongest track, but also one which sits sonically at a right-angle to what’s come before. As organic sounds surround a seemingly effects-free, more direct vocal, the song’s emotion – with lyrical reference made to the singer’s late younger sister – is fully, powerfully conveyed.