The Family Reviews

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Princess Nokia | A Girl Cried Red

Family Average: 4.3/7

Its back to high school angst for the family. As we tackle Princess Nokia's album A Girl Cried Red. Destiny took some leaps and bounds away from what we are used to seeing from her, but for the majority of the family this is their first take on the artist. Lets all have a look and see what they thought.

Listen along on Spotify and check out what we had to say:

I liked the first track, “Flowers and Rope”. It had a lot of dimension, the harmonies reminded me of Blink 182 a bit. The second track also felt like a song of that genre.  “Your Eyes are Bleeding” sounded like a female version of Tommy Delong without the thundering guitar break. I kept waiting for a change in tempo or a hook. A lot of potential but could have been better. That kind of set the pace for the rest of my listen. It all fell short for me. That being said, I am trying to assemble an ikea piece while reviewing this so maybe that’s why I felt this way. But I don’t think so.

4/7

To quote Jorge, “she became a myspace kid...I like it.” This album. Yes. Nokia she’s talented and beyond. The instruments, the details, all those heavenly sounds. And the words. Wavy emo rap, not quite rap though. Everybody’s bringing back the 90s while Nokia’s been there and moved on to the the early 2000s.  Just look at her last album “1992 Deluxe” full on 90s with her style. This one her outfit is full on Hot Topic, emo, pop punk. 
Which leads me to the bits of guitar she’s got in there, it actually works which is quite rare, I have found, in rap because the genres are kinda seperate worlds.  “For the Night” is so sublime. That beat alludes to her alluring bruja style but the track is also basey and more rap-y for sure yet emo all at the same time. “Morphine” is some fine emo-tion-al rap. She leaves us with “Little Angel.” The lyrics aren’t too profound but that’s kind of  the point. It's so simple and innocent it always reaches me, makes me feel things. 

And then it ends, and when it ends its as if she has left us and we are all alone. 

6.6.6/7 (stole that from Sean but 100% agree)
 

Just put me in a harry houdini esque box and throw me to the bottom of the ocean. But before you do duct tape the lid shut throw my ipod with this album on it so I can listen to it on my way down to the darkest depths of the ocean :). While this sounds very depressing it is not It is in this album that I have found beautiful flickers of synth-pop, downtempo hip-hop, and midwest emo, all musical genres that send me into a tizzy of introspective energy. I would love to see this artist continue down this path, because honestly it is a lot better that anything I heard from her before

6.6.6/7
 

Honestly, my favorite part was the interlude... but “For The Night” came close second. The rough auto-tune-y vocals were a bit much, but she’s wearing her heart on her sleeve — smashed on the floor — and it look so good there!

There’s something about the production and lyrics that feel kinda nascent, like she made the tracks using GarageBand in her bedroom covered with Slipknot posters. But maybe that speaks to her authenticity? I don’t know. She’s cool, she’s doing cool things. She’s definitely capturing the whole 90s nostalgia zeitgeist (her name IS Nokia, people).

I do wonder if it actually is new and different or just a bunch of synth-y and dreary trap songs. Then I remember I know nothing about music or rap, so props to Princess Nokia for going rogue and doing whatever the heck she wants.

5/7
 

I enjoyed the first track, “Flowers and Rope” and liked “At the Top”. Some of the other tracks lacked vocal variation. For me, it was a little frustrating. 

I can see her appeal and her talent, it just doesn’t always speak to me. 

4.5/7
 

I was told that if you want to be successful as a song-writer you should write 100 songs and one of them should be good. After that write 100 more and you might be lucky enough to have two decent songs. Princess Nokia wrote 8 songs.

And as if this wasn’t enough to say fuck you she staples it all together with the shallow at best lyrical excuse for a mantra of her heart “crashed into pieces” and it looking “good” on the floor.  Seriously, is that lyric worth being in all of your songs? The instrumentation was somewhat similar throughout all of the tracks which began to become very boring. The vocals were pretty bad at some parts. Like bad even with auto tune . I liked For the Night.

3/7

Honestly I loved her older album. This one seemed so half baked :(