Rebecca Black - "Salvation"

I don't know what she's saving us from, but I enjoyed it

Rebecca Black is back with her second album!

I hesitate to call it a “full-length” album, as it tops out at a shockingly-short 21 minutes, which is just shy of half of the length I look for in an LP. So I’ll be keeping this review brief as well.

Black is sticking with the Hyperpop approach she used for her debut album, 2023’s Let Her Burn, but she has really, truly, sort of perfected that sound. The closest the album comes to a bad (or even just ‘not good’) song is “Sugar Water Cyanide”, its third track, which leans so far into distorted vocals that we end up with this really high-pitched bit towards the end.

But if you aren’t familiar with Hyperpop, that’s actually pretty fucking mild. Trust me. This subgenre puts out some really weird shit.

EVERY other song on this album is an unapologetic bop, and a lot of that stems from Black’s conceptual foundation (musically, anyhow) for the album — she has taken up DJing over the last several years, and that has proven to be an exciting new outlet for her. So much of this album is really driven by House beats and Techno sensibilities. These elements blend remarkably well with the Hyperpop base, which is basically anything-goes-Pop.

The album could use a more solid thematic throughline to ground it, and I’d really like to see more length, as well — it can’t be a truly great album unless it can sustain greatness for a full 40-minute run.

But I don’t even get mad at the shorter song length on this album. It’s just a fun listen. If not for the two points above, we’d have our first Blue of the year.

So, despite that it’s not likely to break that barrier, I’m going to grant it an honorary Teal. I’m truly impressed by how far she’s come since Let Her Burn. If she takes a similar step forward for her third LP (and makes it long enough!) it could be a truly remarkable record.

Rating: Teal