Intentionally or not, calling a song Modern Girlhood is making a statement. It’s a weird fragmented world, so modern girlhood, modern boyhood, modern both, modern neither, modern anything is so complex and confusing that it’s a wildly ambitious thing to have a swing at distilling into a song, but here we are: KRISTA PAPISTA’s Modern Girlhood. It seems pretty clear that PAPISTA, a London-based artist who describes her music as ‘Sordid Pop’, is unafraid to make statements.
Musically, Modern Girlhood is a piece of warped video-game pop, where PAPISTA’s voice swerves from purr (“Honey, I can turn you into a woman”) to strained wail (“someone said you’re a sluuuuuuutttttt”)to angst-ridden howl (“Someday I swear I will stay in your mind foreeeverrr”). Her voice is dominant here: the music switches and changes to facilitate it. A simple, clean beat when she’s calm, a torn, dissonant fuzz when she strains. And that gives PAPISTA the freedom to scour and shred her adversaries with her lyrics, which are a comprehensive demolition of the rotten practise of slut shaming. Pop that’s political by virtue of being personal. PAPISTA says: “I write angry, feminist lyrics with euphoric, pop, easy–to-get hooked-on melodies”, and she’s certainly fulfilled that description here. Listen to Modern Girlhood now.
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