You Can Be My Wave

I was a little late getting around to this album - seeing as it came out all the way back in January - but I didn't want to miss it due to the strength of her song STUPID that came out in 2019. She immediately made an impression on me beginning with these very aggressive shouts, demented laughs, and then going right into some pretty cold bars. Despite the brash, menacing persona, I found a lot of humour and playfulness in her lyrics and performance. Essentially, I saw Ashnikko as being a fairly interesting artist with a complex personality, and of course a great deal of talent.

The lyrical themes on DEMIDEVIL very much align with STUPID. Whether it is calling out men who are emotionally incompetent on Toxic, calling out men for their sexual incompetence on Clitoris! The Musical, or calling out men's overall incompetence on L8er Boi, Ashnikko serves up self-empowering pop rap with a great deal of humour, wit, and style. That's not the only thing Ashnikko raps about thankfully, as that would get tiring. On Daisy, the best track on the record in my opinion, Ashnikko makes it clear she is a boss and not to be messed with. The chorus here is so catchy and I find her sung performance to be quite interesting; exaggerating this stereotypical female fragility while the words contain equally haunting and beautiful imagery. It has this Siren-like quality that is alluring but there is danger that lies beneath.

Slumber Party is a fairly naughty and twisted exploration into Ashnikko's pansexuality. Ashnikko is smitten with another woman and delivers raunchy bars that even make me, a raging homosexual, blush. Ashnikko again shows her performance versatility by incorporating an odd inflection while singing the chorus; one I can only describe as being the result of a sex induced haze. The beat is excellently produced to match the mood and would not at all feel out of place if played at the club. Going back to L8er Boi, this track shows even more of Ashnikko's sense of humour as she cleverly flips Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi to spin a narrative about how she is better off without a dead beat loser who still lives sexually frustrated in his parents' basement. Despite borrowing so much from the source material, I think Ashnikko and her producers did a good enough job making their version stand out from Avril's classic.

As for what I disliked, there was really only one track, and that was Drunk With My Friends. I do like the dirty, resonant bass in the production, but the application of auto-tune on this track is pretty grating. Although this being the only song I disliked, I can't say some of the other tracks really blew me away either. It either came down to bland instrumentals or vocal performances that paled in comparison to others. Regardless, I do think this is a good album with strong female energy, and if there's one thing you should know, gays appreciate a girl boss. If that sounds at all appealing to you, then give this one a spin.