Review: Party Nails throws a genre-bending rainbow party
Party Nails goes for broke.
Eight years ago, Party Nails caught major attention with her Come Again EP, a tightly wound disc that shot her into the public conversation. While planted firmly in the indie scene, she found herself directly in the spotlight. Through the years, she continued to drop singles, EPs, and albums to varying degrees of success. With her brand new record, her first full-length in five years, she returns with a force. Pillow Talk oscillates between bubbly indie-pop (“First Responder”) and effervescent hip-hop (“D.R.A.M.A.”) with abandon. She plays hopscotch with genres, bleeding over the lines and letting whatever pour from her veins. Never holding back, Party Nails surprises at every single turn and delivers her strongest body of work to date.
Sticky like chewing gum, “Bull in a China Shop” finds the avant-pop artist writhing in electric static, while the follow-up “Trigger Warning” is like walking through downtown New York City during the 1980s. Party Nails (real name: Elana Carroll) winds and twists her way through a kaleidoscopic rabbit hole, ala Alice in Wonderland but on acid. Carroll breaks out the guitar on “Dirty Water,” a moody, contemplative set piece that’s barely above a whisper. Guitar strings prick the eardrums, as though needles are being pushed into a pin cushion. Even in such quiet moments, she remains a force, a powerhouse, and a gust of musical wind.
Pillow Talk galvanizes Carroll’s inner musings into genre-bending confetti. From echoing indie opener “Same Old Song” to the bass-heavy “Do U Know How?” and trippy closer “Puppet,” she pushes the boundaries of expectation. She’s never just one thing. She’s all the things. Undefined and free to float around, Party Nails keeps the listener questioning exactly what sort of album this is. But that would be a futile quest. The truth is, Party Nails is all and none. She’s her own genre when you really think it over. While she’s cultivated a vast array of influences, she forges a path that only she could tread.
Pillow Talk is out now.
