FEATURE:
In Plain Sight
PHOTO CREDIT: Scarlett Carlos Clarke
Inside Self Esteem’s Extraordinary Album, A Complicated Woman
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HAVING just released…
PHOTO CREDIT: Jennifer McCord for DORK
perhaps the most urgent, acclaimed and important album of her career, I wanted to take another look inside the feminist masterpiece, A Complicated Woman. Even though there are other themes and layers to the album, it is feminist. Female. Revealing, angered, raw and empowered. I have seen a few three-star reviews for the album with people not really getting it. Or not connected with it. However, there have been plenty of five-star reviews. No doubt one of the best albums of the year. Self Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor) has recently staged. A Complicated Woman. Many of the more mixed reviews – and a few of the positive ones – say that Self Esteem’s real power and pizzaz comes from the stage. An album that comes alive and is properly realised there. However, take one listen through A Complicated Woman and is it a masterpiece that everyone needs to hear! Rather than do a dissection of its songs and themes and look at it – which I might do at another stage -, I wanted to look at some recent interviews with Self Esteem. A couple of the impassioned reviews for A Complicated Woman. Go and get the album now. I want to start out with an interview from The Times. Although A Complicated Woman tackles cycles of misogyny, feminist anxieties and societal pressures, it also addresses confidence, societal expectations and feminism:
“Taylor, who lives in east London, where she recently bought a two-bedroom flat that she has yet to move into, has frequently spoken about the sea of privileged musicians that seems to surround her and the unfair advantage that having wealthy parents gives artists trying to break through. Her father worked in a Sheffield steel plant as a health and safety officer and her mother as a secretary. She has an older brother who is a history teacher in France. Her mother has warned Taylor not to pretend that she grew up poor, but money remains a constant worry for the singer.
“The reason I get depressed and stressed about the music industry is safety — and that means money,” she says. “All I want is to no longer rely on anyone. To know that the rug cannot be pulled out from under me, the way it has been so many times.
“That’s partly why I’m desperate to diversify. Not that acting is a sturdy career, but it’s another string to my bow that makes me less reliant on the music industry — ‘Oh please, sir, give me a TikTok hit.’ Actually, my label just sent me a bunch of TikToks to approve. Ahhh, I just feel stupid. That shit kills me … and it’s starting all over again.”
A Complicated Woman is out next week and there are high hopes for it to hit No 1. Taylor was given a bigger budget, which she almost wholly blew on vast choirs and sumptuous strings. The first single, Focus Is Power, is a gorgeous gospel banger about bouncing back, but it is the near five-minute-long masterpiece I Do and I Don’t Care that will become Self Esteem’s next signature song.
A swelling, spine-tingling choir, an operatic interlude and swathes of Rotherham-rich spoken word (“We’re not chasing happiness any more, girls/ We’re chasing nothing,” Taylor sings, deadpan) lead to a rousing, all-hands-on-deck chant about the dichotomy of being an outspoken woman: “If I’m so empowered/ Why am I such a coward?”
“That line sums up a big theme of the album,” Taylor says. “I am political and outspoken and I really mean what I say. At the same time I’m shitting my pants that I get it wrong.
“Since becoming more visible, I’m terrified all the time. People are foaming at the mouth for women to make a mistake, especially confident women. Look, I have a laugh most of the time. But walking on eggshells makes me overthink and gets me depressed.”
A Complicated Woman is a statement-maker but, fear not, it’s also great fun. Guests include the former Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, a former Slow Club fan whom Taylor has been friends with for a decade. Hesmondhalgh’s rallying speech on If Not Now, It’s Soon was recorded in her kitchen in Manchester. There are also appearances from the indie musicians Nadine Shah and Sue Tompkins, both of whom Taylor says will appeal in particular to her older, male fans. “I call them my 6 Music daddies,” she says, laughing. “I’ve even had merch made for them. Men in their fifties who’ve had kids but still like cool stuff seem to love me.”
A dance track on which Taylor ranks the sexual positions she likes and loathes, called 69, includes a sample from a podcast by the Los Angeles-based drag queen Meatball. Performing it live should cause quite a stir. “I expect so,” Taylor says. “Everyone’s told me how brave the song is. I realised, shit, so it is. Then I panicked about how the hell I’m going to perform it.”
The Curse is a glorious, strings-soaked, swearword-strewn ode to the power of alcohol that has split Taylor’s team. “I’ve been told not to expect another Tanqueray gin advert,” she says of a previous collaboration with the company that gave fans the opportunity to rent two Self Esteem stage outfits, including the white suit she wore at Wembley Stadium supporting Blur two summers ago. “I do and I don’t care. Ha ha!”
The cover of A Complicated Woman shows Taylor screaming, her blonde hair in braids, sporting a Crucible-style bonnet made from a man’s shirt. “It’s my nod to women being hanged for having opinions,” she says. “History has no empathy for everything women go through. I’ll always scream about that.”
She mentions her hang-up-free boyfriend, a member of the Cabaret cast; she won’t name him, but says his identity isn’t hard to work out. Her previous long-term relationship was with a woman — one new song, Logic, Bitch, is about her ex.
Taylor has frozen her eggs — she can’t make up her mind about having kids — and is hoping to soon move into her new home. The fairytale ending? “Maybe,” she says. “Let’s see first if I can afford it”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Self Esteem, centre, and dancers at the Duke of York’s in London in April 2025/PHOTO CREDIT: Aaron Parsons
I will come to an interview from the BBC. I have not seen the theatre production of A Complicated Woman. However, the reviews for it are exceptional. The more I listen to the album and read about it, the more powerful it becomes. It is this incredible experience. I can see how people are reacting to the album. How difficult at times it was for Rebecca Lucy Taylor. Quite isolating or frustrating. However, A Complicated Woman is an album that will affect so many people. I know I referred to it as a feminist album. It definitely is. However, there is also self-awareness, self-laceration and empowerment:
“She hasn't just made a new album - she has also created a daring, jaw-dropping theatrical experience to go with it.
It's set in a sparse recreation of the community centre where eight-year-old Becky from Rotherham learned to tap dance.
"You just wanted to sing / You didn't know what that would bring," recalls an older, more cynical version of that child – as she assesses her life at the age of 38.
"This really is all there is, and that's what you've got to get comfortable with."
As the show opens, 10 dancers line up on either side of her, dressed in austere outfits that recall The Handmaid's Tale.
Initially, their movements are stiff and restricted but, as Taylor describes suffocating relationships with emotionally-stunted men, they start to thrash and jerk their bodies.
"We start in that world where we're shackled, and then we exorcise it," Taylor explains.
"Over the course of the show, it all unravels and everyone ends up being themselves instead of conforming to these societal norms."
The show runs for four nights in London, but the singer hopes to take a scaled-back version on tour
A four-night theatre residency is an unusual way to launch an album. The audience is unfamiliar with most of the songs, and no-one's sure whether to absorb the performance attentively, or sing along and dance.
Several times, laughter ripples through the theatre as the singer's more acerbic observations hit home. The following morning, she's not quite sure what to make of the reaction.
"Every time people laugh, my heart sinks," she says. "But then I'm like, the lyrics are funny, aren't they?
"And I love changing the laughter into emotion. It feels like people are laughing because it's uncomfortable."
PHOTO CREDIT: Aaron Parsons
In the end, the audience members mirror the on-stage narrative. Shaking off their discomfort, they rise out of their seats and start making an almighty racket.
The music becomes a soundtrack to solidarity - which, it transpires, was Taylor's intention.
A Complicated Woman might be as cutting and powerful as its predecessor, but the melodies were designed for stadiums.
"Do you remember the Elbow song One Day Like This?" she asks. "The one that goes, 'Throw those curtains wii-iide'?
"I went mad for that song when it came out and, honestly, I played it over and over in the studio and said, 'I want to do this'."
"I was very inspired by trying to make it onto World Cup montages. That's a genre of music that I really, really enjoy."
As the show continues, the music (and the staging) move from darkness into light
That's only half the story, though. The album is all about capturing the complex and contradictory impulses of a woman in her mid-30s.
Recent single 69, for example, is a thumping house track on which Taylor talks with withering candour about her sex life. Imagine Madonna's Justify My Love, if she was really being honest.
"It's an idea I had for ages, of listing sex positions and scoring them so that there's no grey area [for prospective partners]," the singer laughs.
"But there's a more political element, which is that women still aren't saying what they want in the bedroom. And I'm like, I can't bear this any more. Please let us just enjoy having sex.
"It's not exactly going to win an Ivor Novello Award for lyrics, but I think it stands on the album with moments that are more emotional and deep."
Those moments include The Curse, a rousing ballad about using alcohol to dull her anxiety, which is possibly the best song Self Esteem's ever written.
In keeping with the album's themes, photoshoots and artwork higlight the different sides of the singer's personality
Her personal favourite, however, is called In Plain Sight. A collaboration with South African musician Moonchild Sanelly, it's a response to the criticism they've both received for speaking their minds.
"The world is saying who I am, but I thought I knew myself all these years," says Sanelly in a semi-improvised rap.
"I shrink to keep the peace, hoping I don't shake my purpose."
It's a feeling Taylor immediately recognised.
As excitement built around Prioritise Pleasure in 2021, she started getting "nasty messages" on social media, which shook her up.
"I was really shocked the first time I got grief, because no-one's ever been that bothered about what I'm doing," she says.
"People say you should ignore it, but if you went to a wedding and had a nice day and one person called you an [expletive], who would you go home thinking about? It's just human nature."
Eventually, the criticism took its toll.
"There were moments where I considered giving up, which shocked me because I've been this defiant, angry thing for so long," she says.
"But over the last few years, especially with the world being like it is, I've definitely had feelings of protecting myself and shutting up.
"That's the saddest part of the album, really. But I found a way through.
"And if I can, then I hope the rest of the world can too, you know?"
The theatre show ends with a show of female solidarity, as Self Esteem and her backing singers perform as equals - before doing a conga line off the stage
That realisation is the connecting tissue of A Complicated Woman.
Life is never easy, she says. No-one is ever truly satisfied. Relationships are hard work. You can't please everyone. But that's OK. You're OK. Trust your gut.
She sums it up on Focus Is Power, held aloft by the sound of a gospel choir: "And now I see it clear with every passing of each year / I deserve to be here."
On stage in London, she sings those final lines a capella with her dancers and backing singers, arms wrapped around each other in a display of female solidarity.
It's a cathartic moment after the bruising process of putting the album together.
"There's so much joy in being a woman and just being yourself can be beautiful," she says. "You've just got to find a way to do it."
With that, she's off to make tweaks for the show's second night. After that, she has to find a way to scale down the West End production for a UK tour.
"I'll do what I can to make it continue, but it's a huge risk because there's so little revenue from anything else," she says.
Ultimately, though, her ambition is undimmed.
"I want to make 20 albums, I want to do bigger theatre shows," she says”.
I am going to move to a new Big Issue interview, where Self Esteem spoke with actor and activist, Julie Hesmondhalgh. The latter features on If Not Now, It's Soon. We hear Hesmondhalgh deliver a spoken word passage. It is very moving and memorable. One of the highlights of A Complicated Woman. I think this is an album that will be talked about for years to come. It will be exciting seeing where Self Esteem heads next and what her next album contains. Every album she releases leaves impressions. Even though I like everything she has released, I think this might be her finest work to date:
“If I was smart, after Prioritise Pleasure, I’d make quasi-empowerment advert music for like, a Dove advert. Make some brand deals,” she jokes. “But I couldn’t. The new album, I hope, sort of emancipates me from this idea that I’m this really binary, happy-with-myself woman that is going to empower you and make you feel like “Here Come the Girls” every day. A bit of me can, and a bit of me feels dreadful about all the things we all feel dreadful about.”
“If Not Now, It’s Soon” – the song on the new Self Esteem album that features Hesmondhalgh – reflects such feelings of self doubt, and overcoming them. It’s based on the difficult post-Slow Club years, when she was “spiralling”, living in Margate and trying to work out her next steps:
“When you just wanted to sing / You didn’t know what that would bring”, Taylor sings. Shortly after, Hesmondhalgh’s voice cuts in: “Something will happen because it’s got to / It’s not just perseverance we need, it’s patience.”
“I mean, the whole album is about me giving up,” explains Taylor, sipping her tea. “And then it’s almost like, I need you to come in and tell me not to, on that song.”
“It’s personal and political, because personally, you have to wait and one day you’ll get somewhere less painful. But the world will hopefully get somewhere less painful too.”
‘Dark and dystopian times’
It’s now, by the way, that things start getting political. The kitchen-table-at-the-house-party chat has begun.
“Originally, the bit [in “If Not Now, It’s Soon”] that Rebecca samples was a bit from an actual rally that I did back in 2017,” Hesmondhalgh says.
“Things felt a bit cuspy, things felt like they could change. It was post-Brexit, but it was still kind of like, ‘Oh, actually, people are becoming politicised. People are actually using their voices.’”
It was a time of volatility for the left. Brexit was a recent, painful decision – but disillusionment with austerity and centrism was prompting record youth engagement with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. A staggering 63% of 18- to 29-year-old electors voted for the party’s radical 2017 platform, endorsing social democratic policies such as free higher education and the renationalisation of key industries. This unprecedented turnout helped deny the Conservatives a majority at the 2017 election.
For a moment, real change seemed possible: “Lots of young people were joining the Labour Party,” Hesmondhalgh recalls, “there was a sense, I suppose, of change, of possibility.”
We all know what came next. Labour descended into infighting and accusations of antisemitism, and Boris Johnson swept into parliament on his “Get Brexit Done” slogan. Labour retreated to the centre, leaving activists to mourn a moment that had felt so full of promise.
“When it came to actually making the album it was like, you can’t use that [sample from the rally] any more because that moment has passed,” Hesmondhalgh says. “We’ve gone into a darker, more dystopian time now.”
The direction of the sample had to pivot, Taylor says. “We had this conversation about how it didn’t feel right any more. And then together, we sort of wrote what it is now.”
We need plenty of patience and perseverance in modern Britain.
“Because of old membership, I get the Labour Party’s Facebook posts,” Hesmondhalgh says. “God knows who’s in charge of PR. They’re pretend WhatsApp conversations, like” – she pauses, puts on a deeper voice – ‘Hey, did you know? That the Labour Party has managed to deport 19,000 people in the last week?’”
“And then some people are commenting, ‘You’re lying, vote Reform’ underneath. And the other half of the people are saying ‘How is this OK? How are you the Labour Party? This is not what I voted for, I will never vote for you again.’ So on every single level it’s not working as a policy.”
“It’s lose, lose, lose, lose, lose,” says Taylor.
“That’s what happens when you try and mould yourself into some sort of populist ideal. And the disability cut [Labour’s £6 billion cut to welfare payments, announced last month] the heating allowance – all of it is just really depressing.
“But I will not be depressed, because there’s a whole swathe of young people that are coming up and taking matters into their own hands.”
Things can change for the better – same-sex marriage, she points out, was illegal a little over a decade ago.
“Life is this long thing,” Taylor adds. “And I’m trying to be like – if we stay, if we fight, if we try, surely something will come back.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Self Esteem with Julie Hesmondhalgh/PHOTO CREDIT: Olivia Richardson
Why the arts still matter
What does activism look like right now? Well, the usual: marching, letter-writing, volunteering – but also, taking stock, finding solace in community. And that’s where the arts come in.
Engagement in art makes people more altruistic, a growing body of research shows: according to a 2017 study, people who “embrace the arts” are statistically more likely to help others by giving to charity or volunteering. A 2019 Arts Council England report found that 68% of participants felt arts events strengthened community spirit.
But the benefits of the arts cannot be wholly captured in statistical analysis. They are, however, self evident to anyone who has ever seen a killer live show.
“It was one of my favourite gigs ever in my life,” Hesmondhalgh says, describing watching Self Esteem
perform. Taylor looks pleased, and maybe slightly embarrassed.
“I went on my own, my mate had Covid. I was right at the front. This group of 20-something year-old women completely adopted me. They had no idea who I were, it wasn’t like that, we were just sort of singing our hearts out at the front, weeping. That’s what it’s about, that feeling of community, of sisterhood, and I mean sisterhood in an inclusive sense.
“I feel like that’s what you’ve created, Rebecca.”
“That’s what I needed, though!” Taylor says. “Everything about my career until I was Self Esteem was so exclusionary – music has always felt so exclusionary, and being a woman has felt exclusionary. Now, I enjoy it too, I really feel it too, when I’m up there.”
It’s this kind of community – found on the dance floor, or in the audience – that the pair hope will see us through “dark and dystopian times”.
“[The idea of “If Not Now, Then Soon”] is like, OK, what now? and this idea of patience about waiting it out, working always, working together towards a common goal,” Hesmondhalgh explains.
“That’s what we’re feeling in Self Esteem gigs, you know, this feeling of togetherness. It’s togetherness… You just have to keep banging the drum. Or else people will get away
with everything”.
I am going to end with a couple of reviews for A Complicated Woman. The first one that I want to source is from When the Horn Blows and their verdict on a work that seems as personal to Self Esteem/Rebecca Lucy Taylor then anything else. It is disappointing that there were some less-than-emphatic reviews. That will happen with any album, but for one as incredible as this, it feels like a disservice! However, there is plenty of love out there for this incredible release:
“Three years after the release of her game-changing album, Prioritise Pleasure, Self Esteem, a.k.a Rebecca Lucy Taylor is back. There is no one quite like Self Esteem, whose art is a mix of gut-felt feminism, emotional complexity, lusty humour and a deep appreciation for the power of drag. Releasing her first album, Compliments Please in 2019, and Prioritise Pleasure, which was nominated for a Brit Award and a Mercury Music Prize, in 2021, Self Esteem has been on a trajectory that has only ever been pointing up. Now, she’s set to release what could be her best album yet, A Complicated Woman, which is out this Friday, April 25th via Polydor records.
What Self Esteem is about - well, it’s in the name. Her songs have always been almost overwhelmingly empowering, moving, a hand on your shoulder in solidarity, a light in the dark. Rebecca Taylor has a gift when it comes to writing about complex emotions and her songs often feel like a form of confrontation. Accompanied by a soulful, joyful choir made up of mostly female voices, A Complicated Woman sees Taylor effortlessly exposing the complex feelings that women often keep hidden, with the unique and distinctive sound that is entirely Self Esteem.
Opening with I Do & I Don’t Care, the album is an on-the-spot goosebump raiser. The choir creates an immediate sense of overwhelming power before Taylor comes in with spoken word - “this really is all there is, and that’s the thing you’ve got to get comfy with / we’re not chasing happiness anymore girls we’re chasing nothing / the great big still, the deep blue okay, and we’re okay today”. It feels like a punch in the gut. Rebecca Lucy Taylor doing what she does best - forcing you to confront yourself head on, address and tackle emotions you probably were not even aware you were feeling - “if I’m so empowered, why am I such a coward, if I’m so strong, why am I broken.”
A Complicated Woman feels primarily about sitting, both comfortably and uncomfortably, in the natural ambivalence and uncertainty that one feels in life, which can be heard in tracks like The Deep Blue Okay, and In Plain Sight. However, it’s also an album focusing on taking control of your own life and the paths you take. The second track, which was also the first powerhouse of a single to be released off the album, Focus Is Power, is the perfect example of that. The track is joyous, soul-lifting, “You see, it wasn’t up to me but now it could be, but now I see it clear with every passing of each year, I deserve to be here…” Shared between a choir of women, lines like this become an incantation.
If Not Now, It’s Soon follows a similar theme. It’s once again the gentle hand on the shoulder, encouraging, keeping you steady. It is Self Esteem’s version of the old saying “whatever is meant for you won’t pass you by” - “whatever is right for you will guide you through.” You must persevere and push for what you want but also have the patience and the trust that it will happen. The music, the orchestral strings in the background - they are constantly building, lifting as the song progresses - the ultimate uplifting track.
A Complicated Woman is certainly not short of dance tracks - Mother, Lies, Cheers To Me and the delicious pièce de résistance 69 are all songs that will make you want to be at an underground club, or a festival with a pint in hand, sun shining. Mother, a deep house track, sheds light on how people often end up mothering their romantic partners and how draining it is: “I am not your mother /I am not your therapist.” While Cheers To Me is a pick yourself up of the floor track, a dance around with your friends, shouting it at the top of your lungs kind of pop track “let’s toast each and every fucker that made me this way / cheers to you but mostly cheers to me.”
The hilarious, ridiculously catchy 69 feels almost satirical, listing and rating various sex positions, but in true Self Esteem fashion, it is not. It’s the truth, hidden in humour. Taylor said of the track “I like the idea of clearly communicating your needs in one quick, three-minute house song. It is also political – women still are expected to cater to others sexually; I can’t hear another discussion about ‘faking it’, it upsets me too much! There’s enough inequality in the male/ female dynamic as it is. Our bodies go through so much more pain and suffering, please god let us get the pleasure where we can!” It’s nothing short of brilliant. Those who loved Chari XCX’s Guess will no doubt be a fan, and it also features the beloved Drag Queen, Meatball.
In Plain Sight, perhaps one of the most poignant tracks of the album, starts off gentle, almost hauntingly so, with Taylor’s stunning vocals accompanied by the plucking of guitar strings. Written with Moonchild Sanelly, Self Esteem’s collaborator on the 2024 standalone single Big Man, who also features on In Plain Sight, the track focuses on the criticism women face when they stand up for what they believe in in the public sphere. It’s harrowing, haunting, bone-chilling in the way that it builds. Moonchild Sanelly adds a flawless spoken word, “Scared to speak. I shrink to keep the peace / what will be of me, if I speak my mind.” A chorus of women come together for the shiver-inducing finale of the track as they scream/sing “what the fuck you want for me - in saving you, you’re killing me.”
The final track of the album, The Deep Blue Okay, which was referenced in the opening song I Do & I Don’t Care, feels like a full circle moment. It opens with a simple piano key which is repeated, fast, insistent, urgent - symbolising the importance of the track, the meaning behind it. It is vulnerable, but also pulsing with excitement, hope. Capturing the essence of the album in its entirety. As Taylor sums it up herself, “acceptance of life’s grey areas leads to a new lease on life.” The Deep Blue Okay feels like an ascension into whatever heaven is - the orchestra building and building to the grand crescendo at the end “It’s still hard out here, but fuck I’ll just keep going/ you’ll always work it out.”
Self Esteem is the definition of empowerment, and strength flows rapidly through A Complicated Woman. With this new album, Self Esteem once again makes us look inward, forces us to confront ourselves and proves that there is a fountain of strength deep within us all”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Scarlett Carlos Clarke
I am finishing up with Rolling Stone UK and their five-star review of A Complicated Woman. If you have not heard the album or only the singles so far, then you really need to hear the entire thing. One of the most inspiring and emotional albums I have heard in years. That is one reason why I wanted to shine a light on it now:
“If I’m so empowered, why am I such a coward / If I’m so strong, why am I broken?” asks Self Esteem, aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor, on ‘I Do and I Don’t Care’, the opening track on her third album A Complicated Woman. Hopeless though the outspoken pop diva may sound, these contradictions are an invitation into the spectacularly more interesting grey area where two things can be true at once.
Paradoxical thinking is nothing new to Taylor, who cut a choppy path to liberation on her widely acclaimed second album Prioritise Pleasure, having gone solo from indie duo Slow Club in 2017. Lamenting cycles of misogyny, feminist anxieties and societal pressures, it was a brave, bolshy portrayal of all her knotty complexities, delivered with a refreshing dose of her trademark irreverence. Now, after some time spent honing her theatrics with a turn playing Sally Bowles in the West End Revival of Cabaret, Taylor returns just as conflicted, but a great deal more enlightened.
A Complicated Woman presents its titular thesis as Taylor finds fun and freedom in life’s eternal incompleteness. There’s no cheeky subterfuge or smirking ulterior motives here; it’s all out on the table, her lyrical realism as relatable as ever. “How many trains can I cry on in a lifetime?” she asks plainly atop a sun-splashed dance-pop groove on ‘Cheers to Me’. Elsewhere, she admits to a tricky relationship with alcohol on the gospel climax of ‘The Curse’: “I wouldn’t do it if it didn’t fucking work.”
Still, there’s an on-brand absurdity that such uplifting instrumentals — in the realm of “montage music for the World Cup”, as she put it recently — could soundtrack an inspirational monologue about following your dreams. Such blatant clashes of sound and subject matter shouldn’t work as well as they do here; one moment Taylor is running through a checklist of her sexual dos and don’ts on smouldering electronic dance track ‘69’, featuring the drag queen Meatball, and the next she’s leading a choir at megachurch-level decibels on ‘What Now’.
But it’s the hyperpop bombshells that signal the biggest shake-up, from the whirring electronic bassline and lashing snares on ‘Lies’ (featuring Nadine Shah) to the early 2010s-indebted ‘Mother’, on which she bemoans the inequality of emotional labour set to a ping-ponging beat. Like all her best songs, there’s still plenty of sincerity, particularly on the choral-led ‘Focus Is Power’, which features a female empowerment mantra we can all get behind: “My focus is powerful.”
Then there’s the guest contributions from Life Without Buildings vocalist Sue Tompkins (‘Logic, Bitch!’), former Coronation Street actor Julie Hesmondhalgh (‘If Not Now, It’s Soon’) and former collaborator Moonchild Sanelly (‘In Plain Sight’), which invite their own moments of quiet contemplation.
Ultimately, though, what we’re left with is a message of hope. “You’ll always work it out,” Taylor resolves on jubilant closer ‘The Deep Blue Okay’. After all, it’s the trying among the mystery of it all that makes us human, and here Taylor shows us just how spectacularly that can be done”.
Self Esteem is one of my favourite artists. Many release albums that might be personal or they are just for fun. She tackles societal expectations and feminism but there is also this inward investigation. Lyrics that are often funny and sharp but some that genuinely move or shock you. Songs that seem like statements or mandates. It is fiercely feminist and empowering but it is also tender and playful at times. No doubting the fact that A Complicated Woman is…
A work of wonder.