I do quite enjoy 69! It's very catchy x

Same , I really like it also.

Third track, If Not Now, It's Soon, released today

Just heard this for the first time, this is my favourite of the three so far!

Very pleasantly surprised by the album as I found the singles to be a mix of verging on decent or a bit naff.

Love I Do And I Don't Care (it has the same crushing bleakness and spoken word charm of I Do This All The Time), Cheers To Me (great pop), The Curse and The Deep Blue Okay on first listen. Mother is entertaining and 69 and If Not Now, It's Soon work better in the context of the album.

Seems to be getting very mixed reviews, seen a few 3-star and a few 5-star so far! Think I'd give it 4, it's not perfect.

I kind of hate all of this 🥲

Such a shame after loving the first two, but none of this is for me at all. It’ll be interesting to see how it does, her profile has been raised a lot since Prioritise Pleasure, but I’m not sure any of the new material is hitting the same.

After 1 listen, this strikes as an "interesting" album more than "brilliant" album but sometimes the interesting ones stand test of time better. Need to listen more.

I listened to this earlier and my lasting impression was that it felt a bit too much and missed some shade, I kinda want to describe it as being a bit brash and blunt sounding. There were bits I enjoyed though, Focus is Power and If Not Now, It's Soon sounded better in the album than they did as stand alone singles - but I'm still not a fan of 69, the lyrical content just isn't something I'll ever enjoy listening to.

Cheers To Me sounded like the strongest melody and was undeniably catchy, probably the best stand alone track for me. I Do and I Don't Care felt like a bit of a retread of I Do This All The Time, it was okay but I definitely would always choose to listen to the latter. In Plain Sight and Lies were probably the two others that I liked the most on first play, although I think that was partly because they felt like a little bit of a change.

I'm not going to write it off too quickly though as I do think she's really talented, at worst I think there will be a few keepers to add to my playlist of Prioritise Pleasure.

On 4/25/2025 at 3:18 PM, Cremey said:

I kind of hate all of this 🥲

Such a shame after loving the first two, but none of this is for me at all. It’ll be interesting to see how it does, her profile has been raised a lot since Prioritise Pleasure, but I’m not sure any of the new material is hitting the same.

This is where I am with it, too — I am finding it all a bit too cheesy and slight, and the melodies aren't strong enough to get beyond that

At least Boots has quite a few options here for a song for their Christmas advert

I’m conflicted but sadly have to agree this is just… not really it.

I’ve cherrypicked a couple of good songs (I Do and I Don’t Care , Lies, and Cheers To Me I think are a great balance of her old sound/spark and this record’s direction), and the singles do make more sense in the context of the album, but the whole thing just isn’t what I want from her. As I think I’ve said already in this thread, she was sonically so compelling, doing whatever she wanted, and you got the sense that she could have done anything, gone even more left field in this era. But here she is with essentially a Heart FM playlist?! And it’s all written and performed impeccably for what it is, she clearly is an excellent pop writer and knows exactly what strikes but it’s just not what I want from her, it’s not what I want from anyone I wouldn’t have even minded if she went more theatrical and musical vibes, I loved her turn in Cabaret, but anyone could have released most of this album. It won’t even win her any new fans, and it will most likely alienate a lot of people who enjoyed her prior albums.

But I just need to know why every other song needs the same strings and the same X Factor winner’s single choir.

Must say Focus Is Power has grown a lot on me in the album context.