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7.7/10
'blotter baby' was my first listening experience with mazie, originally being drawn in after hearing "are you feeling it now", a dreamy, art-poppy, synth-infested track that makes for such a hypnotic listen. After finally listening to the album in full, I can confidently say that I'm now a mazie fan.
mazie comes through with a plethora of eargasmic tracks, full of gorgeous melodies, harmonies, strings, and synths. Most notably, the opening track "it's not me" checks all of these boxes, starting strong thirty seconds in with the electric guitar, accompanied by psychedelic-sounding bubbly synths. It's one of the more serious tracks on the album, with mazie opening up about her struggles with a relationship, stating that she's not the problem. "another life" also stood out production-wise, with a dreamier feel than the first track both vocally and instrumentally. The harmonies are gorgeous and the brief beat switch into a more tropical sound was an interesting choice, with a light guitar, happy synths, and upbeat boppy drums. "menace" is a unique listen, with a pretty touch of electric guitar, with it really coming to life near the end where mazie goes into this little flow letting loose into a beat drop of layered synths and a solo guitar stint. Lyrically, this song displays self-confidence, with mazie talking about how much of a "menace" she is--no matter what she does, she'll get what she wants.
The middle of the project has an interesting mix of tracks, with "i look good" and "somebody to lose" being the stand-outs, with fun lyrics, intriguing instrumentals, and richly layered bright synths. "give up!" is just ok, with uplifting lyrics but annoying vocals on the chorus, almost sounding like a Disney child actress singing. "girls just wanna have sex" obviously didn't really have a lot of thought put into it, but it's lyrically fun and has a decent pop-punk feel. "dumb dumb" is again a bit underwhelming, with her preach of "dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb" being a little too goofy for my taste.
The final trio of tracks on the album is fairly solid, with "life is a long goodbye" being one of the less strong of the three, containing a mysterious melody multiplied by the psychedelic-like synths hanging in the background, but is oddly ruined by it briefly switching into this brighter, happier beat at times in the track. "u and i will always be okay" is a mellow acoustic track with pleasing breathy vocals. It's heartwarming lyrically, with mazie talking about how she'll always appreciate this person in her life and care for them, no matter what. Closing the album is "as it was before is how it ends", a dreamy track in terms of production, with on-point reverb, and superb vocal mixing, giving the effect of her talking directly into your ear. Her voice truly acts as the main instrument on this track, it's one of her best vocal performances on the project. The beautiful string layers near the end make this track so trance-inducing, and I love the little switch it goes into at the end, bringing forth an unexpected but poppy drum beat, quickly fading off with an acoustic guitar.
mazie brings us a wonderful art-pop project, and although there are moments here where some tracks may be underwritten or unsatisfying production-wise, there are tracks that you'll want to replay again and again.
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