Cape God

Cape God is the second studio album by Canadian singer Allie X. It was released on February 21, 2020 by Twin Music. The release followed her extended play Super Sunset (2018), but departed from her previous style and process of songwriting. The album was primarily written by Allie X and James Alan Ghaleb, and produced by Oscar Görres. It received generally positive reviews.

Cape God
Studio album by
Allie X
ReleasedFebruary 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)
Genre
Length43:15
LabelTwin Music[4]
Producer
  • OzGo
  • Jens Duvsjo
  • Valley Girl
Allie X chronology
Super Sunset
(2018)		 Cape God
(2020)
Singles from Cape God
  1. "Devil I Know"
    Released: January 31, 2020

Background and development

Allie X released her extended play Super Sunset in 2018. Cape God was originally intended as a sister record to the EP, though Allie X later decided to split the project into a separate album. She contrasted her approach to writing Cape God with what she had taken for her previous releases. While she stated that her previous releases involved experimentation with "alter egos", Cape God was "a pretty personal, pretty intimate body of work".[4] In an ask-me-anything session on Reddit, Allie X noted that "it was easier [for her] to make this record than any other" and that "[the process] happened very seamlessly."[5]

Allie X drew inspiration for the album from the characters within Heroin: Cape Cod, USA, a 2015 documentary about the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts.[4] She wrote songs from the point of view of one of the documentary's characters,[5] and developed a fictionalized Cape Cod in her mind as a way to reflect on her personal experiences.[4] She met producer Oscar Görres and songwriter James Alan Ghaleb in Stockholm, shortly after writing the opening line for the album's first track "Fresh Laundry". She described her songwriting process as "seamless, therapeutic, and very enjoyable," though she also credited Görres's production for being able to complement her "layered kind of complex lyrics".[4] Cape God was Allie X's first album to feature vocal duets.[6] She began work with feature artists Troye Sivan and Mitski in 2018.[4]

Artwork

The album cover photograph was shot in a cave in upstate New York by Brendon Burton, using natural light and a smoke bomb.[5]

Songs

The album opens with "Fresh Laundry", described by Sarah Shodipe from The Line Of Best Fit as lo-fi, while Stuart Derdeyn of Vancouver Sun wrote that the song had a "big booming beat, spooky vocal and splashy keyboard hook".[7][8] Allie X described "Devil I Know" as about dealing with a toxic relationship;[9] reviews described the song as catchy and as combining melodies with moodiness, but also noted a strong resemblance to the Arctic Monkeys song "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?".[2][10]

"Love Me Wrong" is a ballad featuring Australian singer Troye Sivan.[2] Allie X gained inspiration for the song from the 2018 coming-of-age film Boy Erased, in which Sivan played a supporting role. She noted the similarities between the film's main character and her writing process for the album.[4] The song showed two perspectives on a lovers' quarrel.[2] Reviews widely described "Super Duper Party People" as the album's standout track, while noting its corny title. musicOMH described it as "a bass-led anthem" with lyrics about people at "a particularly seedy nightclub",[2] DIY said the track "perfectly displays [Allie X]'s ability to create a refreshing take on what could otherwise be by-numbers pop",[10] while Exclaim! said the track was "hallucinogenic" with references to drugs and sex.[6] "Susie Save Your Love", a collaboration with indie rock artist Mitski, is a pop song with drums, bass and synths and included "depressing" lyrics about a woman named Susie stuck in an unwanted relationship. Paste described Allie X and Mitski's vocals as "almost too perfect of a match", but that it was a "solid track" for dancing alone.[11] musicOMH noted that the song "sounds unaccountably sad yet impossible not to dance to".[2]

Release and promotion

The album was preceded by the release of four promotional singles, the first of which, "Fresh Laundry" was released on September 27, 2019.[12] This was followed by "Rings a Bell" on October 18, 2019,[13] "Regulars" on November 8, 2019,[14] and "Love Me Wrong", a collaboration with Troye Sivan, on December 6, 2019.[15]

"Devil I Know" was released as the lead single for the album on January 31, 2020.[16]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic78/100[17]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[18]
DIY[1]
Exclaim!9/10[6]
The Line of Best Fit9/10[19]
musicOMH[2]
Pitchfork6.8/10[3]
Q80/100[20]

On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 78 based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17]

Corey van den Hoogenband of Exclaim! said the album "elegantly blends" Allie X's new and old styles, creating "[her] best work yet". He remarked that the instrumentals contained "a carefully crafted grit and griminess", noting that while she had used such an effect to create a "sense of impending doom" on all her work, the instrumentals on Cape God felt more communicative than her previous records.[6] John Murphy of musicOMH said that the album had an "experimental edge" separating it from the work of other alternative pop singers like Marina Diamandis and Charli XCX, making it "one of the most delightfully weirdest albums of the year".[2] Q magazine noted that while "Cape God might be an awful place to visit", "the tunes [on the album] are great".[20] Eric Torres of Pitchfork described Cape God as "the strongest concept in her catalog to date".[3]

In a more mixed review, Martin Toussaint of DIY stated that while the album was more ambitious than Allie X's previous releases, it "lacked any edge she's previously shown" and "on the whole [the album] falls short". Toussaint criticized the album for failing to "push boundaries" in the same way as did Allie X's previous works such as CollXtion I.[10]

Track listing
Cape God track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Fresh Laundry"
3:56
2."Devil I Know"
2:52
3."Regulars"
  • Hughes
  • Ghaleb
  • Görres
3:41
4."Sarah Come Home"
3:33
5."Rings a Bell"
  • Hughes
  • Ghaleb
  • Görres
4:16
6."June Gloom"
  • Hughes
  • Ghaleb
  • Görres
3:09
7."Love Me Wrong" (with Troye Sivan)
3:12
8."Super Duper Party People"
3:49
9."Susie Save Your Love" (with Mitski)
3:58
10."Life of the Party"
3:31
11."Madame X"
3:30
12."Learning in Public"
  • Hughes
  • Ghaleb
  • Görres
3:48
Total length:43:15
gollark: CSS makes some hard things really easy and some easy things really really hard or impossible.
gollark: Why would they make the definitions be in English?
gollark: We could harvest communism to run our reactors.
gollark: Interesting.
gollark: It might truncate it. I had some issues when I accidentally put 17 outputs.

See also

References
  1. "Allie X - Cape God". DIY. Archived from the original on February 21, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  2. Murphy, John (February 21, 2020). "Allie X - Cape God | Albums". musicOMH. Archived from the original on February 22, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  3. Torres, Eric (February 27, 2020). "Allie X: Cape God Album Review". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on February 28, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  4. Kress, Bryan (February 21, 2020). "Allie X Talks Finding 'Solace' in Herself on New Album 'Cape God'". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  5. alliexxxxandra (December 17, 2019). "I'm back. I'm Allie X and you're invited to Cape God. AMA 🙅". Reddit. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  6. van den Hoogenband, Corey (February 19, 2020). "Allie X Cape God". Exclaim. Archived from the original on February 22, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  7. Shodipe, Sarah. "Avant-garde pop music has a new saviour in Allie X". The Line of Best Fit. Archived from the original on February 26, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  8. Derdeyn, Stuart (February 12, 2020). "Stuart Derdeyn Vancouver Sun music reviews | Vancouver Sun". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  9. Gregory, Allie (January 31, 2020). "Allie X Shares "Devil I Know"". Exclaim. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  10. Toussaint, Martin (February 20, 2020). "Allie X - Cape God". DIY Magazine. Archived from the original on February 21, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  11. Keogan, Natalia (February 21, 2020). "Hear Allie X and Mitski Come Together on "Susie Save Your Love"". Paste. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  12. "Fresh Laundry - Single by Allie X on Apple Music". Apple Music. September 27, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  13. "Rings a Bell - Single by Allie X on Apple Music". Apple Music. October 18, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  14. "Regulars - Single by Allie X on Apple Music". Apple Music. November 8, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  15. "Love Me Wrong - Single by Allie X & Troye Sivan on Apple Music". Apple Music. December 6, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  16. X, Allie (January 27, 2020). "The Lead Single from Cape God, 'Devil I Know', Out this Friday". Twitter. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  17. "Cape God by Allie X". Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 22, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  18. Yeung, Neil Z. "Cape God – Allie X". AllMusic. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  19. Sarah Shodipe (February 25, 2020). "Avant-garde pop music has a new saviour in Allie X". The Line of Best Fit. Archived from the original on March 7, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  20. "Cape God". Q (published April 2020). February 21, 2020. p. 114 – via Metacritic.
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