Every so often doing this job throws up someone is off the wall but not in such a way to be off-putting and that can be a fine balance.
It describes Rebebe quite well. She was here last year with a single, ‘Prozac’, in which she sounded “like a sort of cross between Kate Bush on one of her whackier numbers, and Poly Styrene.”
That’s when I could hear her, that is. Her diction was terrible and I felt obliged to say so. Since then she’s released an EP, ‘What are you into’, and then another one on June 9th, ‘Deserving’, from which this track is taken, and I’m glad to report a big improvement in that vocal delivery. I can now hear at least half the song.
She’s an alt-pop artist, still only 20, of contrasts – introvert/extrovert; confident/frenetic; yin/yang. She says that every song she writes criticises either herself or events she has observed and she isn’t attacking herself in ‘Tissue’; rather she’s having a pop at ‘privilege blindness.’
I wish had access to all the lyrics because what I hear is cutting, even if in a mischievous way as she calls out the privilege protagonist; “I’m handing you a tissue/so you can blow out your mummy issues”.
Musically, the song zig zags like a racetrack, formlessly, jauntily and tunefully, abetted by a humorous and optimistic delivery, while the little thing she has about slowing it down and adding unexpected grandeur, bombast even, in an early bridge works surprisingly well. So much so that I’d I’ve liked to hear it a second time.
The songs on ‘Deserving’ are all written and performed by Rebebe along with co-producer, Villads Øster, of the indie pop-outfit, Liss.
Find her on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/r_ebebe/
