Why Want It Me Next?

Emily Allan “Driving”

Emily Allan’s debut album Clanging is best heard in its entirety, if just to bring the scope of her project in focus. A variety pack of electroclash flavors, different angles on a distinctly 2020s sort of absurdist nihilism, multiple explorations of a specifically feminine version of spite and evil, all delivered in an ice cold deadpan. The spiky digital aesthetics and ultra bleak humor remind me of Chicks On Speed in particular, but there’s also something very Mark E. Smith about the way she leans into odd quasi sci-fi imagery (“I wanna be the sex robot in the meatplex”) and intentionally obnoxious percussive language. “Driving” is a good example of this: I immediately loved the broken robot repetition of “next,” but paying close attention reveals some clever wordplay in the blunt force vocal delivery.

Buy it from Bandcamp.