If Weekend Recovery, having started out as a Paramore-esque radio-friendly alt-rock act, ventured further out towards ever more grungy / garage rock territories before restarting as Static Lives, the solo career of singer / guitarist Lauren Forster, under the LORI moniker. Her Facebook page’s current strapline is ‘Brat, pop(pers), glow sticks, so 90s’, and sure enough, ‘Hot Topic’ is permeated with heavy Charlie XCX influence: simple electronic musical backing, and autotune that completely defines the vocals.
In terms of lyrical content, ‘Hot Topic’ comes from a place of empowerment, and there’s a real groundswell of female voices speaking up and speaking out about toxic masculinity and the fact that men are, generally, shit. And no, ‘not all men’ doesn’t get a pass when we’re looking at patriarchy and the entire societal structure – and when every single day, it’s revealed that yet another man has abused his position, or otherwise been a shit. One day it’s Marilyn Manson, the next it’s Greg Wallace. It’s record labels, it’s multinational companies, it’s not specific to one industry or another, it’s simply the world.
In terms of execution… it’s pumped up on energy, although my 13-year-old daughter is adamant that it’s not brat-pop, and it does feel like there’s degree of bandwagon-jumping involved here. Still, if she’s having fun…
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