So Good - Zara Larrson (ALBUM REVIEW)

Now here's an artist I've been looking forward to. Zara Larsson is a UK sweetheart that has had pretty large success worldwide (minus the US because lol of course) and has managed to make some solid music throughout. After massive success with tracks like Lush Life, her feature on Girls Like, both tracks I loved, she decided to finally throw together a debut album. The promotional tracks for this album I loved. The poppy and solid I Would Like, the even greater So Good featuring my boy Ty Dolla, and the horrific train wreck that was Aint My Fault, which may have sucked sure, but it showed me that this album had potential. She wasn't going to be one of those MANY female pop stars who have 1 interesting single pop off, then create 9 other tracks of straight filler. Aint My Fault was a trainwreck, which showed that not only was it possible, but that she was WILLING to make a trainwreck, try new ideas and sounds, which I fucking love. The features seemed pretty self explanatory for what most pop stars do: 1 rapper who you otherwise wouldn't expect (Ty Dolla $ign), the 1 feature that everyone expected from miles away (Clean Bandit), and the 1 oddball pick (Wizkid, like seriously what the fuck). Nonetheless, I was fucking hyped for this album, the debut of a great pop starlet with a promising career. So, how'd this come out?



I feel like a fucking idiot.

She fooled me. She fuckin fooled me. Zara Larsson punked my bitch ass. And the worst part is: she tried. Make no mistake, this was not a lazy, phoned in album that was rushed out while Zara still had buzz. Every move here was calculated and chosen with the utmost certainty.  Zara knew what she was doing, the problem was that she didn't understand how bad it was going to turn out.

Now first off, the production on this album is what I was looking forward to the most. Say what you will about Zara herself, her producers at least knew what they were doing. And on a whole, the production is...kinda a mixed bag. From the beautiful, tropical sounding tracks like "Lush Life", "TG4M", and my personal favourite track, the title track "So Good" with Ty Dolla $ign, and the very upbeat and sleazier "Aint My Fault" and "Funeral", the album itself has a few great sounds to it. Where the production lacks for me the most is in the abundance of the piano ballads. They aren't horrible or anything, but they aren't layered or garnished with much else, leaving a lot to be desired. Then there's the couple of dancehall tracks where, again, it's a mixed bag. You got the generic ass dance beat of "Sundown", but you also have the pretty pleasant "I Would Like", this entire album is oddly uneven. But I'm not THAT surprised if I'm being honest. After all, seeing a lot less Dr. Luke or Max Martin and a LOT more guys like Charlie Puth didn't leave me very hopeful. What I wasn't expecting is the direction went with Zara Larsson herself.

Zara has been a very enjoyable performer for me. Unlike most pop starlets, she's a singer that tends to stray away from falsetto and instead go deeper rather than higher, which tends to match her beats way more, and definitely compliments the "percussion over melody" formula that she uses almost all the time. At least, before this album. I don't know what happened, I don't know if she's trying to go into a new direction or something, but god there are points where she just doesn't sound good. All the singles she sounds fine, great even, including Aint My Fault (which is somehow NOT the worst on this album), but these deepcuts did not put her in a good light at all. From the screechy, ugly vocal heights of One Mississippi, from the high pitched and incredibly bored slog of "I Can't Fall In Love Without You", to the disaster that is "Sundown" with Wizkid. There are many moments where I mistook Zara Larsson for Camilla Cabello on this album. CAMILLA CABELLO. She's so screechy at some points and it's fucking infuriating. But up to this point, I can dig this album. It has faults sure (MANY faults), but I can enjoy this. Up until analyzing the lyrics and themes and, fucking hell.

Zara is a solid writer. She writes catchy hooks, and narratives of being the confident, strong girl after a relationship dies. And I fucking love it. "Lush Life" is the biggest contender for this, and it makes sense why it's the most loved single of hers. And in this album, she mostly tries to stick with themes similar in the vein of love, which I'm totally cool with. She's a young pop star, if she aint singing about love, what can she even sing about? One of the best tracks on the album, "TG4M", is a song about Zara having a crush on this dude she knows is way too good and successful for her, but she still wants him anyways. It's not spiteful, not nasty, instead she tries to improve herself and become a better person until she feels she's ready for this guy, WITHOUT getting in his way. It's respectful as shit & I love it. But the rest of this writing? Dear lord no. Absolutely not. And the concepts aren't the problem here for the most part, this isn't "Oh, she her ideas were fucked to begin with", she just decided to be a shitty writer, like someone flipped a switch in her brain. The most notable fuck ups are in the hooks. These clunky, dodgy ass hooks. On "Funeral", talking about a break up:

"Bury my heart six feet under, throw us a funeral"

On the fucking stupidest track in recent memory "One Mississippi":

"One Mississippi, you're here/Lovin' me with your whole heart/And two Mississippi, we scream/To watch each other fall apart/Three Mississippi, you're gone/Sayin' that you're done, you don't want it no more/And four Mississippi, you're home/Like nothin' ever happened at all"

Or the almost equally as stupid "I Can't Fall In Love Without You""

"Don't you think I give a fuck? (yeah, yeah, yeah)/Give a fuck 'bout who you fuck? (yeah, yeah, yeah)"

WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

Why is she writing shit like this? This dumb, stupid, basic trash. Hell, it isn't even basic. She put in effort to make her songs read like dogshit.

And the tones. THE FUCKING TONES. Like, ok, how do you make a song titled "Funeral" about a break up sound upbeat, and a song titled "Make That Money Girl" about female empowerment that's ratchet as ALL fuck be a fucking piano ballad, and then you make a song titled "Aint My Fault" about not being responsible for a relationship falling apart a god damn TRAP BANGER. You got every single production lyric match up WRONG. But the worst track on this album has to be "Sundown" by a mile. It's dumpster sludge dancehall beat, the straight trash verse from Wizkid, it's boring lyrics about absolutely nothing, and a bridge that's straight up satanic sounding. One of the worst tracks of the year, honestly.


I am fucking astounded this exists. This entire album is some Space Jam bullshit, where the only feasible explanation is that some tiny alien came into the studio and sucked all the talent out of Zara Larsson. This isn't a terrible album, but fuck me is it a disappointing one.



OVERALL: Light 5/10

BEST: So Good ft Ty Dolla $ign, Lush Life, Symphony ft Clean Bandit, Don't Let Me Be Yours

WORST: Sundown ft Wizkid, One Mississippi