FEATURE:
Second Spin
Skylar Grey - Don't Look Down
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THIS have is quite a new album to me…
even though it was released back in 2013. Skyler Grey is an artist that I am aware of and like very much. An amazing artistwho has written songs for peopleincluding Kehlani, G-Eazy, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Zedd, Nick Jonas, Céline Dion, and CeeLo Green, her music is amazing and deserves more attention. Her second studio album, Don’t Look Now, got mixed reaction. Some felt that the album hinted at Grey’s Hip-Hop potential but was too Pop-focused. Maybe a little less edgy than it could have been or not entirely sure of its sound, balance and convictions, I think that the 2013 album is well worth another spin. Although Don’t Look Now features guest spots from Big Sean, Eminem, Travis Barker and Angel, it is Grey’s force and talent that comes to the front and is the most impressive. I will quote a couple of mixed reviews for the album, in order to outline what critics have said about the L.P. I feel that it is a lot stronger than it was given credit for. Tis is SLANT’s take on Skylar Grey’s second studio album:
“Holly Brook Hafermann, a.k.a. Skylar Grey, is best known as the brains behind Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie,” and Marshall Mathers has been grooming the singer-songwriter for a splashy Interscope debut ever since. Don’t Look Down is the sound of an artist negotiating with her own MC impulses, of a talented lyricist whose pop instincts tell her to abridge herself. Complicating matters further, executive producer Eminem allows far too many cooks in the kitchen, a reflexive inclusivity that leaves the album feeling over-processed. At heart, Don’t Look Down is a vaguely hip-hop-inflected homage to ‘90s pop, not so much uninteresting as underwhelming and repetitive in its orchestration. Grey writes a great abortion song, but you’d be forgiven if you confused it with her song about the weather.
Grey’s voice is a versatile instrument, capable of channeling various pop idioms while only sometimes disappearing into them (à la Vanessa Carlton). Her default setting is a curious midpoint between Shakira and Shania Twain. She performs her vocal flips with a savvy precision (again, rather too cleanly), but can also bring in darker tones, as on the boozy “Wear Me Out,” an Amy Winehouse-style midtempo song of erotic defiance. When she’s having fun you can tell: “C’mon Let Me Ride,” featuring Eminem, is a high-camp glory of a song, as Grey expresses her libido through the usual perverse childish metaphors and Mathers apes Freddy Mercury’s “Bicycle” before dropping a zig-zagging verse that turns the beat on its head. It’s the funniest fuck song of the year so far.
Grey’s influences can lead her to sound like a China doll at times, too polished and coy and pure. Yet throughout, she’s forthright about her sexual standards, exhorting an ex to improve his cunnilingus technique, if only for the next girl’s sake. On “Shit Man!,” which features an excellent, Nicki-Minaj-once-removed verse from Angel Haze, Grey rocks out over some heavy-ass questions: “So now what happens if I choose/To have this child with you?” More to the point, she answers them: “We don’t even have a ring yet/We’re gonna need a bigger house,” she reasons during the chorus, “And you say you’re not ready/I don’t believe in abortions.” What could be more jarring than this near-conservative sense of purpose, this unrepentant ultimatum? It’s an awesome celebration of choice, and an object lesson in Grey’s impulse to baffle expectations in her songs”.
Before coming to another review for Don’t Look Down, there is an interview from 2013 that is worth exploring. The Hollywood Reporter asked Grey about the album and working with the likes of Eminem on such an important release (as it was her major label debut):
“Don’t Look Down comes via producer Alex da Kid’s KIDinaKORNER imprint, housed under the Interscope Records banner, with Eminem serving as executive producer of the album and appearing on its first single, “C’Mon, Let Me Ride.” It’s a testament to the rapper-producer’s faith in the 27-year-old Wisconsin native whose first true solo effort is a confident, fully realized effort.
The Hollywood Reporter recently sat down with Grey at L.A. hotspot Sayers Club to discuss her songwriting, high-powered relationships, new album and what took so long.
The Hollywood Reporter: Anticipation for the record has been high, and attaching Eminem’s name to it adds even more excitement. It seems there’s still a mystique to him. Would you agree?
Skylar Grey: He does have a mystique. It’s an intense curiosity. It’s not just, “Oh, there’s this new artist.” It’s, “There’s this new artist that Eminem is working with and supporting, so that makes it even more interesting.” I definitely see that.
THR: The album’s release date has been pushed back several times. Can you talk about why?
Grey: One of my biggest problems is I get bored too easily, and I like to experiment too much, to the point where I confuse myself and I confuse my fans. So it just took me some time to figure out exactly what I wanted this album to sound like because I had worked with so many types of people and tried so many different things. I had to wait for the right batch of songs to come together and feel like a whole piece.
THR: And it feels that way to you now?
Grey: It does — finally.
THR: As a complete work, what does it represent to you?
Grey: Lyrically, I’m talking about my life, from being a kid to struggling financially and struggling in the music industry — not directly about that, but the emotions that I went through. So it’s all very real stuff that I’ve experienced. To me, the album is all about growing up, coming into your own and accepting the challenges that you face in life.
THR: Can you give an example using a song?
Grey: There’s a song called “Glow in the Dark” [about] when you’re facing all these different challenges and you don’t know where to go, [how] it can weaken you because you’re just uncertain. I write a lot about the past because I really see things clearly in hindsight — obviously everybody does, so there are morals in every song. Then, once I’ve learned all those things and gotten through the hard times, I come out feeling really powerful and “Glow in the Dark,” to me, is that powerful song on the album”.
To round off, there is another review that I want to source. AllMusic were mixed in their reaction to an album that, I think, has a lot to recommend about it:
“After nearly a decade of toiling away on the margins of the music industry, the former Holly Brook became Skylar Grey and scored a massive hit as a songwriter with Eminem and Rihanna's duet "Love the Way You Lie." On that song, Grey's melodies functioned like Dido's did on "Stan," but after spending years and years as a sensitive singer/songwriter, Skylar Grey takes great pains to signify as tough on her 2013 debut, Don't Look Down. Heavy on stylish accouterments -- everything from echoed pianos and tightly rolling loops to cameos from Angel Haze and Big Sean -- Don't Look Down deliberately trades in bad-girl glamour, with Grey singing innuendoes and explicit profanities with ease, luxuriating in minor-key melodies and haunting, immaculately textured productions. Grey is clever enough to allow herself some measure of silliness -- there is absolutely no other way to describe the Queen-quoting "C'mon Let Me Ride" -- a move that reveals the seams in her goth-princess persona and makes a good chunk of Don't Look Down come across as nothing more than bubblegum Lana Del Rey. What saves Skylar Grey is what brought her fame: her finely honed songcraft, how she knows how to sculpt a melody so it cuts through the clutter and sinks into the subconscious. Try as she may to distract with her strut and style as Skylar Grey, what resonates is the same kind of melodic turn of phrase that was apparent back when she was calling herself Holly Brook”.
Rather unfairly overlooked and underrated upon its release in 2013, Skylar Grey’s Don’t Look Down is a great album. Wear Me Out and Final Warning are singles that makes the first half of the album so strong. The second half is not as strong, through songs such as Clear Blue Sky are pretty decent. If you have not heard of Skylar Grey or the Don’t Look Down album, then take some time to play a…
GREAT album.