‘Quarter Life Disaster’, as its title suggests, is an album about existential confusion. Its creator, Child Queen (born Arabella Latham) has spent three years writing concerning the disconnect between her schedule as a fast-rising artist – from main pageant appearances to a current cameo in Netflix’s Heartstopper – and returning to her private life in between, over adrenaline-jolted melodies. It hasn’t all the time been a smooth-sailing journey: through the pandemic, Latham signed a serious label deal – but it surely happened over Zoom. “I’ve been ready for this my complete life, and I used to be like, ‘What an anti-climax,’” she recalled to GQ final 12 months.
In her songwriting, Latham revisits her earlier challenges in an try to forge a recent begin. She is an artist who feels feelings deeply, however may even analyse her personal damaging behaviours in addition to her private wins. After shifting to London from Durban, South Africa at 18, and changing into concerned within the metropolis’s underground scene, she got here out as queer and has since sought to articulate the liberation of that have by way of each humour and vulnerability. This juxtaposition persists right here: “The one man I discover engaging is the Grim Reaper”, the now 26-year-old sings on ‘Love Killer’; the gauzy ‘Dream Lady’, in the meantime, particulars the emotional paralysis of crushing on a woman with a boyfriend.
‘Quarter Life Disaster’ strikes between moods that translate to brilliant, Day Glo colors (‘Child Genius’) or darkish goth accents (‘Die Alone’). However the former can usually flip grating; ‘We Can Be Something’’s message of naïve optimism recollects the self-empowerment anthems that dominated pop radio within the early 2010s. There’s apparent enchantment, nonetheless, in how Latham’s fanbase would possibly really feel considerably comforted by her phrases – and that issues, to an extent.
It’s a divide that exemplifies this album, and leaves you questioning whether or not an viewers past Latham’s personal longtime followers will discover one thing to attach with. Her earlier materials, primarily the outstanding single ‘Dover Seashore’, had a blockbuster high quality in the best way it layered heartache, lust and unhappiness with elegant confidence. Right here, past the hard-hitting spotlight ‘I Can’t Get My Shit Collectively’, Latham insists on pining for misplaced youth: “I’m nonetheless a bit of child,” she repeats on ‘Develop Up’.
A want to dump these rising pains at size means Latham loses the exuberant persona that outlined her 2021 mixtape ‘The Yearbook’. She usually reiterates factors which have already been made, and rushes emotional revelations in direction of a straightforward exit as a substitute of holding her gaze fastened ahead. “How can I concentrate on the long run after I’m one foot previously?,” she asks on the title monitor. The query virtually feels too apt.
Particulars
- Launch date: November 10
- Document label: Polydor
