Pixey - Million Dollar Baby

In many ways, it’s hard to believe that this is Pixey’s debut album proper; the Scouse songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has been a familiar face since 2019, having already got four shorter projects under her belt (the most recent being 2022’s ‘Dreams, Pains & Paper Planes’). As such, it might have been easy for her to cast ‘Million Dollar Baby’ in much the same mould, catering to her well-established base of ‘90s revivalist alt-pop fans. And don’t get us wrong, those sonics are still firmly in play – most notably on punchy pre-release single ‘The Thrill Of It’ – but there are also dynamic forays into fresh territory. 

The sun-blushed title track soars with ‘80s synths and and echoes of Baby Queen’s ‘Want Me’; the woozy psych-rock of ‘Damage’ backgrounds Pixey’s seamless move between sung and rapped vocal delivery; and the joyous horns of the Northern Soul-inspired ‘Bring Back The Beat’ act as an ode to her love of sampling. It doesn’t always quite hit: the shimmering effects and childlike chanting on ‘Best Friend’ end up overly saccharine, and ‘Oxygen’’s slightly cliche concept of being “forever young’’ is explored with more nuance (and thus effectiveness) on ‘The Thrill Of It’. By the time we reach the album’s affirming, widescreen closer ‘The War In My Mind’, the alt-pop polymath has pondered fame-chasing, self-worth, seizing the moment and more, concluding here that she’s on the right path (“Maybe I could be somebody / Someone I always dreamed of”). On this evidence, she’s not wrong.