Though I’m not the most avid fan of her oeuvre, I was cheered recently to see that Ellie Goulding wanted her new album to be less personal: ‘It was such a relief and really refreshing to not be sitting in the studio going through all the things that happened to me and affected me… it’s the least personal album, but I think it’s the best album because I got to just explore other things about myself. I just really, really enjoy writing; really enjoy being a singer.’
What a refreshing take on the creative process, which in modern times can often seem like a cross between a bulletin from the therapist’s couch and a ceaselessly-picked sore. Millennials can’t seem to get enough of spilling the tea, and that goes especially for their most successful singers. Lizzo’s latest single is called – look away now – ‘Special’ and, my word, it’s every bit as wet as the title might suggest:
Woke up this mornin’ to somebody judgin’ me/Found out it in the end that I can only do it for me/You call it sensitive and I call it superpower/You just lack empathy ’cause you think it gives you power/You’re special/I’m so glad that you’re still with us/Broken, but damn, you’re still perfect/You’re special…
Identity politics – far from being recognisable as in any way left-wing – are what we teenage tankies used to call bourgeoise individualism
What made Lizzo so refreshing was that, as someone who had once lived in her car during years of rejection from the music business (partially because she doesn’t conform to the standard sexed-up video-vixen visuals), she sang universal anthems of non-specific resilience.
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