Addison album review: how a TikTok star is cementing herself as a pop princess

Sienna Bentley

I’ll be honest – I wasn’t expecting to like Addison Rae’s music. Admittedly, I had been kind of dismissive of her; this wouldn’t be the first time a social media star pivots into music. I was intrigued, however, watching her evolution to see how and if she would shed the TikTok persona, and her debut album Addison is the culmination of her bid to reshape her public identity.

Critics will assume that the talent of TikTok stars is capped at just that – when you’ve built a big enough platform to try something else, you will have a talented team and endless resources to help you succeed in this new endeavour. While I understand where this argument comes from – I doubt the record would be anywhere near what it is without the help and backing of some really strong co-writers and producers – in my view you have to be good on some level, or at least have a vision or an idea of the creative direction you wish to pursue. Listening to the album, a creative vision is clearly something that Addison Rae has.

Initially, I was struck by the visuals. I rather begrudgingly became a fan of ‘Diet Pepsi’ and then ‘High Fashion’, the music video of which I loved. The promotional visuals Addison Rae has been posting on Instagram, such as the video for ‘Times Like These’, have really impressed me. I’d say it was these visuals, combined with some really strong singles, that convinced me to listen to the album when it came out.

And frankly, I was impressed.

Overview of Addison

One thing I will say is that the pre-release singles are some of the strongest songs on the album — and there are five of them. This, I feel, is somewhat of a detriment to the album as you may not feel like you’re discovering anything new when you listen to the rest of the record (with perhaps the exception being ‘New York’). That said, this could be attributed to the overall cohesion, which is one of the strengths of the album – more to come on that.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons to artists that Rae has cited as influences or has worked with directly. You can hear Charli XCX – Rae’s mentor and friend – in ‘New York’ with the Brat-era tech house beats (my personal favourite track on the record), Lana Del Rey’s melancholic refrains in ‘Summer Forever’, with whom Rae wants to “roll one” (‘Money is Everything’) and the foundational aesthetics of Madonna and Britney Spears. While I do think that this album is a core driver in the 2000s pop revival, it does largely feel like a reimagined sum of her influences. But is that a bad thing?

Sam Franzini at Clash summed it up better than me, writing, “Addison reflects more what Rae enjoys rather than who she is. But who can blame a girl who, at her first opportunity, throws all of her influences in a blender to make a tapestry of what she grew up on?”

BTS of Addison Rae’s first show with Spotify, held at The Box, NYC

Production

I really like the production – particularly on ‘New York’. Unusually for a pop album, Rae wrote with just two people: Luka Kloser and ELVIRA – two young producers and songwriters signed to MxM Music, a publishing company owned by Swedish producer Max Martin, which is unusual for a pop album. This situation is even rarer since big-budget pop records made only by women are virtually non-existent. But it’s the small, close-knit team united under one vision that makes the album so cohesive in style and feeling rather than genre.

Speaking with Suzy Exposito at Elle, Anderfjärd, Kloser and Rae revealed that the record was inspired by Madonna’s 1998 album Ray of Light, with the Korg M1 synthesiser dubbed as “the sonic lynchpin” of the album. Manufactured from 1988 to 1995, the M1 is one of the bestselling synths ever and was widely used in pop music in the early 90s – including in Madonna’s 1990 single ‘Vogue’.

Indeed, the beats and synths are hypnotising, floaty and intriguing. Her aesthetic oozes confidence and self-possession. The vocals are dreamy, soft and playful, though possibly lacking conviction.

Other notes

The only place where I think it risks falling short is the album cover. Considering just how strong the visuals are, the album art just feels a little ‘Picsart’ to me. I get that it’s supposed to feel Britney-esque and have a y2k vibe to it, but something about it seems… somewhat inauthentic, which is a shame when I know the intention was to be the complete opposite.