DORIAN ELECTRA - Flamboyant

She first caught our attention with bizarre musical history lessons on the evolution of high heels through the centuries, the function of the clitoris, and the shifting meaning of drag queens. Not to mention her fascination with the philosophical thought of Friedrich Hayek, and some sprightly little milk-themed parties (?). Then there are her shared aims with the post-feminist media collective Refinery29, and her musical ties to the world of pc-music through a famous friend like Charli XCX (whose latest tour she is currently opening select dates for). And what, finally, to make of the new romantic image, as if raised inside a video game, of Dorian Electra herself, if not to simply use — with a healthy dose of irony — her own self-definition as a genderless clown?

We're living through a period in which discourse around gender identity has seen a remarkable surge in visibility, often reaching fever pitch, partly through ever-shifting contemporary language, Instagram activism and the YouTube beauty industry, and partly because of the pervasive nature of the internet itself, which paradoxically seems almost to invite a return to certain pre-democratic tribalisms. With a cover like this, vocal filters cranked to the max and an obviously neutral pronoun, Dorian Electra dives headfirst into the cauldron.

Fortunately, though, there is a precise point where identity theories and ephemeral popmuzik fictions meet a solid artistic proposition: “Flamboyant”, a self-produced debut with all the songwriting credentials and sonic/visual qualities to pass easily as one of the most brilliant pop records of 2019.

The effect is initially so disorienting that, paradoxically, it takes repeated listens to grasp the refinement of the vocoder use, which here mutates the voice several times within the same track, creating a subtle male/female interplay.

What is Dorian Electra? Hard to say. Even the opener “Mr. To You” isn't quite the gender statement the title might suggest; the lyrics soon take on the overtones of a Dom/sub relationship, as if to subjugate the listener from the very first notes — and the trick works, it must be said, thanks also to that killer hook rattled off over a soft bed of keyboards. Other explorations of ambivalent masculinity can be found in “Man To Man” and “Daddy Like”: the former a warm invitation to emotional sharing via a textbook chorus, the latter a far more leering sexual caricature.

Special mention goes to “Emasculate”, a moment of rare psychological self-violence, as fractured as the mirror image of someone suffering from gender dysphoria — not remotely “cute”, in other words, but I suspect that's precisely the point.

If you've been following the recent Barbie-metal evolutions of America's Poppy, or Halsey circa “Nightmare“, you can get a rough idea of the revival certain nu-metal atmospheres are forming in the least suspected corners of the internet, and tracks like the kitsch ferocity of “Live By The Sword” and the heavy beat with ecclesiastical choirs of “Adam & Steve” touch on some of those sonic aspects in their own way, through convulsive, noisy distortions.

Two standout singles close the record: the electro-baroque fantasy of the title track, which plays between theatrical piano flourishes, candelabras worthy of Liberace's living room and a gloriously ridiculous sweep worthy of a Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler music video, and its more modern counterpart, the glittering, sugary “Career Boy”, an anthem to post-industrial workaholism wrapped in HD, caffeine-bitter packaging.

“Flamboyant” retains the enviable gift of brevity (eleven tracks for just over half an hour), meticulous care for hooks and choruses, and a distinct artistic direction that make it a project that is both thoroughly contemporary and highly enjoyable. The credit goes squarely to Dorian Electra, who, however much she operates within pc-music and the purest digital pop, has no qualms about applying almost classical rules to the structure of her songs — fortunately never lacking in irony on either side of this seemingly impassable ideological barricade. 2019 pop, in short, is “Flamboyant”.

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10/10/2019