South London-made indie songstress, flowerovlove (Joyce Cissé), has gone from strength to strength in recent years: from supporting Olivia Rodrigo, Halsey and Niall Horan on their respective UK and European tour dates, to performing on the Gobi Stage at this year’s Coachella festival.
However, nothing quite cements Cissé’s status as an up-and-coming, era-defining artist of the 2020s more so than the release of her long-awaited debut album, ‘MINI SKIRT WARRIOR’ – released August 28 via Capital Records.
The album covers the transition from girlhood into womanhood. The metaphorical title of the album cleverly acknowledges how society leaves young women no choice but to wear protective armour – often done through fashion, cosmetics and embracing consumerist culture. All of which are masterfully woven into the tapestry of this thirty-five-minute modern feminist commentary.
For instance, the first major track on the album, ‘In My Victoria’s Secret’, offers a dazzlingly brutal take on contemporary hook-up culture. It sees the speaker unceremoniously ditched by her one-night stand, leaving her questioning “How did I let a five at best / Waste one night / In my Victoria’s Secret?”. Thus, exploring how hook-ups leave one often grappling with feelings of self-worth and the importance of validation. The upbeat nature of the track’s chorus certainly makes an anthem for heart-healing, as opposed to heartbreaking.
Next up is a cutesy country-inspired subversion of the fairytale happily ever after, in the form of ‘American Wedding’. It sees someone in the grips of a fantasy, planning out her dream wedding in Vegas to her latest obsession, before realising that it really is all a dream. It captures the reality of a grown adult, still having childlike fantasies and the joy of buying into consumerist wedding cultures and magical delusion in adulthood. The track is full of chicken picken’-esque riffs, made famous by legendary country-rock musicians like James Burton and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, that reinforce the energetic and chaotic nature of the speaker’s fantasies – whilst proving that Cissé isn’t afraid to play about with the form, as well as the content of her music.
Following on from the fairytale, comes ‘shady’ – a track that certainly does not have a happy ending, and instead offers more of a realistic one. The lyrics are brutally honest; lines like “Do you even think at all? / Want me, then you break up / Say you don’t know how to love” expose the harsh realities of accepting that someone does not love you as much as you love them. If ‘American Wedding’ is all about the fantasies that come with girlhood, ‘shady’ represents the realities of love and womanhood. The country sound continues in this track too, with a theatricality and vibrant country-pop flair that one has only really seen achieved by the likes of Twinnie in recent years.
Cissé matures in her sound, lyrics, and overall delivery with each song. Thus, giving the whole album a poetic, extended prose-like structure. For example, in ‘Don’t Even’ and ‘Debonair’ she deploys a decent amount of vocal fry and rasp, moving away from the soubrette, sweetly subtle vocal style she uses in earlier tracks like ‘American Wedding’.
The final five songs of the album also embrace their own unique sound, alongside an empowering set of lyrics. In ‘I’m Your First’, we see yet another reclamation of power from a woman who has been wronged by another abysmal man. Lines like “You ain’t ever had a girl like this / I know I’m your first bad b*tch” are refreshing. They show a strong woman aware of her self-worth, a woman p*ssed off but proud, a woman who has matured and learnt to love herself by embracing her femininity.
‘KISS KISS KISS’ and ‘baby’ are simple but effective tracks that begin to round off the album beautifully. They again play around with the concept of daydreaming as a hopeless romantic whilst also trying to navigate the reality of a dog-eat-dog dating world. They have the casualness of a Gracie Abrams track, but with Cissé’s own cool-girl-chic stamp. Completing the album is ‘girls will be girls’, a fabulous collaboration between Cissé and WILLOW. It is a high-octane dance track, once again with a country twang – making you want to both shake it on a nightclub dancefloor and hand jive in a ballroom. The song centres around the importance of girls supporting other girls by simply having fun during the transition from girlhood into adulthood – thus underpinning the whole ethos of the album.
Legend has it that flowerovlove has just created a whole new era of feminist-chic pop!
Cory Gourley
Image: ‘MINI SKIRT WARRIOR’ Official Album Cover
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