FEATURE:
Getting Their Priorities Right…
Why Self Esteem’s Hugely Acclaimed Second Studio Album Should Win This Year’s Mercury Prize
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ALTHOUGH awards are not everything…
PHOTO CREDIT: Suzie Howell for The New York Times
and the true mark of a successful and worthy artist, I do think that there is a discrepancy when it comes to Self Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor). I shall come to it soon, but her latest studio album, Prioritise Pleasure, was released in October. One of the most acclaimed and remarkable albums of the past decade, it has won a slew of five-star reviews. She and her group have a busy spring and summer ahead as they head to various festivals and venues. One of Rotherham’s proudest and most amazing daughters, Rebecca Lucy Taylor released the best album of last year. Although, on stage and on record, others help bring her music together, it is very much her central and blinding talent that has blown people away. A queer artist who composed a warts-and-all album that will stand the test of time. It was disappointing to see that she missed out on receiving BRIT honours and any gongs from NME. In the case of NME, one would have thought they would have given her some due credit! As I said, awards are not everything, but Prioritise Pleasure is an album that should be picking them up left, right and centre! After her debut album, Compliments Please (2019), missed out on a Mercury nod, there is no way her second album can be ignored. There will be stiff competition from the likes of Little Simz and her album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. Surely the other frontrunner, I do think that Prioritise Pleasure should be given the gong. For one, it would go to an artist born outside of London. Come September, I would expect to see Self Esteem rocking up to the Eventim Apollo pretty much assured that she will win the prize.
The dozen shortlisted albums are not announced until 28th July, but there is this split between the overwhelmingly positive reviews (I have literally not read a review that is anything less than hugely effusive!), the ecstatic and passionate audiences that have witnessed these electric and timeless live shows and the seeming absence of awards. Many people think awards shows are pointless and they have no meaning. I think that they do acknowledge excellence, and it is a huge incentive for artists. In the case of the Mercury Prize, it is literally about the best album of the year from a British or Irish artist. Drilling down to the importance of a single album, there is that desire to recognise a great upcoming artist, but also not have that be the main focus. Self Esteem is a relatively new artist. As her first studio album was a few years ago, it is not the case of this very long-running and established artist being given the prize. Like I said, Rebecca Lucy Taylor is from Rotherham (born to a steelworker dad and secretary mum). The last few years and more have been dominated by London artists taking away the prize. It is very boring and seems to suggest that being from the capital is the main criteria for the winner! Not to take anything away from Little Simz (who was born in Islington), but I would be disappointed if the Mercury went to a London artist again this year. It would show no imagination, and it would solidify claims that the prize is Londoncentric.
I am going to finish with a few interview samples, where Rebecca Lucy Taylor has talked about her work and inspirations behind Prioritise Pleasure. Like any valid award show, the Mercury Prize should award the best album of that year. More than eligible for inclusion, you only need to read a couple of sample reviews to understand that Prioritise Pleasure is more than an amazing album – it seems like a watershed moment and something that will inspire so many other artists! Funny, honest, open, powerful, varied and impossible to dislike, Prioritise Pleasure is almost like Rebecca Lucy Taylor has done a Madonna in the 1980s: going from the budding Queen of Pop in 1986 with True Blue and having it confirmed on 1989 with Like a Prayer. Not to make too many Madge comparisons, but I hear shades of several Madonna albums in Pritotise Pleasure (Erotica, Like a Prayer, Ray of Light and Confessions on a Dance Floor among them). A modern-day icon and heroine whose third album will be the most anticipated of this age, there is no doubt in my mind that Prioritise Pleasure should walk away with the Mercury Prize. I have seen the release schedule for albums due that could challenge. From those released already from the likes of Little Simz, Yard Act, IDLES, Wet Leg and Adele, to upcoming promise from Florence + the Machine and Kelly Lee Owens, I still think that this is (finally) Self Esteem’s year!
This is what DIY said in their hugely positive and fulsome review for Prioritise Pleasure. So many other reviews are as rapturous and adoring:
“On her 2019 solo debut ‘Compliments Please’, Rebecca Lucy Taylor set out the stall for her project Self Esteem as an assertive but nuanced pop star. It’s with ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ that she’s upped the ante considerably. A powerful and potent look at - quite simply - the experience of being a woman in the present day, this is an album that encapsulates the fear, anger, dread and exhaustion that has become so commonplace in so many female lives. And yet, it’s a record that still offers comfort and levity; there’s a wittiness and dark humour that traverses the likes of ‘Moody’ - its opening line being the iconic “Sexting you at the mental health talk seems counter-productive” - and ‘Fucking Wizardry’, all the while remaining honest and raw, but free of judgement. When the record’s opener ‘I’m Fine’ closes with a voice note of a woman in her early twenties explaining that - if approached by a group of men - her friends’ reaction is to begin barking like a dog - because “there is nothing that terrifies a man more than a woman who appears completely deranged” - Rebecca’s response is to begin howling herself.
It’s also an album that sees Rebecca continually pushing herself to explore new sonic avenues; eclectic instrumentation and bold sonics are the backbone of the record, with tracks switching from spoken-word manifestos (‘I Do This All The Time’) through to more traditional R&B pop formats (‘Still Reigning’) via gigantic gospel-backed offerings (‘Prioritise Pleasure’), and back again. Most importantly, though, this is a record that doesn’t compromise. An uncomfortable and unnerving listen at times - as any album dealing in this level of openness arguably should be - it’s also an absolutely necessary one. Through her own personal stories - and those of others - ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ manages to challenge accepted norms and help to exorcise long-buried demons; it’s powerful to the last drop”.
Prior to coming to some reviews and rounding off, I wanted to include The Line of Best Fit’s review. They gave Prioritise Pleasure a full ten of ten, and they were not holding back on the praise:
“It’s in this pursuit of pleasure that Taylor snatches the opportunity to embrace emotion in abundance. “Don’t be embarrassed that all you’ve had is fun” she preaches on gripping centrepiece “I Do This All The Time”, her vocals backed by a choir. The inclusion of these choral outbursts throughout the album help to reinstate Taylor’s messages of unity, with the sea of vocals welcoming washes of sonic euphoria.
The thunderous outcries of “How Can I Help You'' convey a retaliation against societal norms and the unrelenting standards that women are expected to yield to. “But I don’t know shit, do I?” she snarls, supported by tribal rhythms and a cavernous bass drum beat that simply demands you realise your own self worth. Similarly across the title track, Taylor’s rhythmic flourishes allow the powerful chorus to explode into the importance of prioritising yourself. Elsewhere, “Moody” - a highlight of the record - not only contains a funk-pop pre-chorus that’ll make Dua Lipa green with envy but also the wickedly witty line “Sexting you at the mental health talk seems counterproductive”.
In between those intense flashes of emotion though, Prioritise Pleasure also makes space for contemplation and quiet vulnerability. In “Still Reigning” for example, we see her step back from the flag-waving hedonist into a more empathic, nurturing role. “The love you need is gentle, the love you need is kind” she muses, like a warm hug from the big sister you never had. Although perhaps the most stark and goosebump inducing moment on the record is during opener “I’m Fine”. In a spoken word snippet taken from a National Youth Theatre workshop on the topic of consent, we hear an unnamed woman recount that “There is nothing that terrifies a man more than a woman who appears completely deranged” - a bleak reminder of the fear of male violence shared by countless women and the normalisation of it in our society.
Commanding, assertive, and powerful, Prioritise Pleasure is everything pop music should be. Wholly unafraid to tackle difficult subjects with ease, in Rebecca Taylor we also have the makings of a serious pop behemoth”.
In August, Self Esteem spoke with NME ahead of the release of an album that would soon announce her as one of the most important and extraordinary artists of her generation:
“There was a lot of promotion around the release of Prioritise Pleasure. As one can imagine, for such a quality album, there was a lot of demand and requests from the press. I wanted to source a couple of interviews (segments from them), just to give a more personal sense of what Prioritise Pleasure means and where Self Esteem is in her career now.
“Though Self Esteem’s 2019 debut album ‘Compliments Please’ won Taylor plenty of fans with its barbed take on pop music, ‘I Do This All The Time’ represents her breakthrough moment ahead of ‘Prioritise Pleasure’. Her June rendition of the song on Later… with Jools Holland was one of the most powerful television performances of this year; as the lights burst into technicolour, Taylor throws her head back and beams with pure, undiluted glee. Though she initially set out to build a discography rather than one huge moment, she’s grateful for the steam it has gathered all the same.
“Mostly, I’m excited that the song isn’t a poppy sure-fire breakthrough,” she points out. “I still love that song; I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever made in my whole career.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Pentel
Many of ‘I Do This All The Time’’s lyrics refer to Taylor’s own experiences – the voice creepily calling her a “sturdy girl” is based on a real-life tour manager, while many of the reassurances – “don’t be intimidated by all the babies they have / Don’t be embarrassed that all you’ve had is fun” – answer to the pressures that Taylor still feels.
“I was born in the ’80s, in Rotherham,” she says. “There was no way I wasn’t going to grow up thinking this is all well and good, but when I’m married and I have my children then I’m sorted. I still have that wiring. I start dating someone, and I’m like, ‘is this it?’ I have to go, hang on, is this what?’” Gradually undoing that same wiring, she says, has led her to some positive realisations – around the idea of a chosen family, for example. “I have a family and they’re not just people I’m related to,” Taylor says. “Humanity and connection and love doesn’t just have to be sexual. It’s all hard work, isn’t it?”
The advice-dispensing, spoken-word track has won understandable comparisons to Baz Luhrmann’s 1997 single ‘Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen’, a spoken-word song that issues sage nuggets of wisdom over woozy, lounge music. The sheer volume of comparisons eventually led Taylor to tweet about hypothetical male mourners who might crowd around her open casket following her death in order to whisper: “It’s like a Baz Luhrmann for women”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Pentel
And, true to its title, ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ as a whole is an album that champions putting yourself first – even if it makes certain people uncomfortable. “I’ve done years of therapy, done plenty of work on myself, and read every fucking book you can fucking read about it, and it comes back down to true self-acceptance and self-love,” Taylor says. “It’s the answer to everything, but it’s still something that you’re meant to not do. I go down this road a lot, and I get quite upset. But then I think, no – just keep in my little part of the world, my group, accepting myself, loving myself, and then make my little silly songs and do my little silly dances. And if someone can learn from that and pass it forward, at least I’m doing something?”
This same boldness is also evident in ‘Prioritise Pleasure’’s sound, which often springs up from a particular kind of steamy, slower-burning pop, and warps it – and for every chipper nu-disco bass-line, there’s a left-field touch of abrasiveness. “Sexting you at the mental health talk feels counter-productive,” Self Esteem belts out on ‘Moody’, her sheer honesty jarring with a snappy alphabet-chant chorus.
On the thumping title track, she reflects on the freedom she feels both as a solo artist and a woman as stuttering synths assemble into a gigantic grinding wall. “Prioritise pleasuring me, no need to wait for bended knee,” she demands, “I’m free.” Though she doesn’t view herself as a pop star, Taylor enjoys inhabiting that world anyway – and has little time for snobby attitudes towards pop music”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Pentel
I am going to finish off with an interview from The Guardian. They (among many others) named Prioritise Pleasure as their album of 2021. It is an album that is very important to Rebecca Lucy Taylor as it is to those who have listened to it:
“Prioritise Pleasure is the Guardian’s album of the year. How do you feel?
It’s fucking cool, innit [laughs loudly]. My PR told me at my gig in Manchester and then just walked off, like the ultimate mic drop. Also, I’ve done the double as well, with the single of the year. Amazing.
Did you expect the album to break through in the way it has?
No. I’d absolutely made my peace with being told I’m underrated. But I also don’t feel like things have massively changed – I still feel like I will be fighting for ever. But I get my own Travelodge room [on tour] now and – I’m not joking – that’s bliss to me. Before I was always sharing.
Why do you think the album connected in the way it did?
I keep doing this joke that everyone’s as depressed as me now because of the pandemic, so maybe it’s that. I used to feel very alone and I couldn’t understand why I found everything so difficult. On this album I’m starting to feel like, certainly for women, or for people who struggle not to live the perfect 2.4 children dream, it’s society that’s caused it to be shit for us. I think a lot of people are realising that as well, and maybe I’m vaguely eloquent enough to make sense of it all.
A few months after your debut Compliments Please came out, you were worried about whether or not you even could make a second album.
It had been a risk to do [Self Esteem], and I felt so accomplished, actually, on that first record. Then I was hearing “Hmm, but it didn’t really sell and no money was made” from the label. Are you kidding? All this work hasn’t been enough? That feeling of “maybe I’ll get dropped” was horrible but it managed to thicken my skin and I realised I wanted to do this regardless. I was prepped and ready to do [a second album] anyway, but then I didn’t get dropped.
When did you start writing it?
I did How Can I Help You at the end of 2019. Then I wrote a lot of it at the start of 2020 and spent the whole pandemic listening to the demos just ready to make it. I had to just sit and think about it longer than usual.
Was it important to have the lyrics be pretty plain-speaking and direct?
I think so. I was in an indie band [Slow Club] for so long and I remember wanting to say really simple things I felt, but to get it OK’d I would have to deploy a metaphor or think about how Bob Dylan would say it [laughs]. So my lyrics sound like they do now because I’m not having to get it through someone else’s lens any more. When I was younger I’d get my disposable cameras developed and none of my pictures would be of the scenery or any cool things I saw, it was all just my friends. All I care about are people and the things they do. I’m interested in horrible life, and lyrics are the horrible life bit for me.
There’s a black humour to some of the songs – is comedy an inspiration when it comes to lyric writing
No, not really. I’ve definitely curated a kind of [does a goofy voice] “I’m funny” thing to survive being a woman, and it seeps into who I am. It also is who I am. But it’s sort of the last level for me when it comes to things I need to stop doing. Gaga doesn’t have to do jokes! It naturally comes out of me because that’s just me, but I think it’s when I feel like people expect it that it pisses me off.
Your moniker was sort of about wish-fulfilment – if I put it out there in the world it will happen. Do you think you’re getting there now?
It comes in and out. These past six months I have been very emotional. I’m really used to knowing why but I don’t know why this time. I think it might be that something is happening in me where I think I might love myself, finally. And that just makes me cry loads, but in a beautiful way. It just feels like there’s no going back now, and life will throw all sorts of shit but I finally feel like I’m on an even playing field with people who don’t suffer with this bullshit. I feel limitless”.
Although there is a way to go before we learn which dozen albums are in contention for this year’s Mercury Prize, there is no doubt Self Esteem’s Prioritise Pleasure will be among them. I also feel that Wet Leg, Little Simz, Yard Act, IDLES, Adele, Florence and the Machine, Black Country, New Road, Charli XCX, and Pillow Queens will be in the running.
PHOTO CREDIT: Suzie Howell for The New York Times
Having won so much acclaim, and being named as one of the defining albums of last year by some (and the absolute best album by many others), the sheer momentum and importance of Prioritise Pleasure means it should finally win a big award! The incredible and enormously memorable gigs that have been performed after the album’s release, and the fact Self Esteem is now a bigger name in the U.S., leads me to believe it will walk away with the Mercury. Even if Self Esteem is not brand new, giving it to an artist from Yorkshire who is still early on in her career and has put her heart and soul into every song means that it would be a welcomed break from the slew of London artists who have won in recent years. An album that is still reverberating and stunning to listen to, it is a great shame that it has not been garlanded with much-deserved awards. Rarely has an album that has amassed such critical acclaim and sold so well (Prioritise Pleasure reached number eleven in the U.K.) been overlooked when it comes to awards. A modern-day queer icon and hugely honest and down-to-earth artist who is writing with so much wit, revelation, depth and maturity, there is so much to recommend. The videos for the singles are so well-shot and choreographed; the live performances have won so much love, and Rebecca Lucy Taylor herself is so fascinating to listen being interviewed. Such a real and respected woman, it will be fascinating to see where she goes next. Prioritise Pleasure, for many reasons, needs to get the Mercury Prize come September. To me and so many others it is…
THE very least it deserves!