Tierra Whack’s 2018 mixtape Whack World took the concept of having “15 minutes” and protracted it leveraging shortform content to deliver a 15-track mixtape via Instagram putting her brazen creativity on full display garnering acclaim and accolades, even a Grammy nod for ‘best music video’. Her album debut comes in at double the runtime with just as many tracks and nailing down a definitive description of the album is something like a pristine pair of shoes that never wears but are students nightmare to own, it’s a toughie (if you know you know). So I’ll start by dissecting the album’s title; it could be construed as; Wide Wide Wack, World Wide Hack or the most descriptive epigrammatic alliteration, World Wide Whack-Job. From this point on, I’ll refer to it as WWW to eliminate confusion.
WWW does both but Tierra deliberately goes to great lengths to orchestrate unconventional tonal shifts that will deter the passive listener and intrigue those engaged but both will be bemused, and it seems that is the LP’s intent.
WWW does both but Tierra deliberately goes to great lengths to orchestrate unconventional tonal shifts that will deter the passive listener and intrigue those engaged but both will be bemused…
Its intro ‘MOOD SWING’ (a symptom of manic-depression) is a soft-rap record with introspective lyrics peppered with the refrain “I’ve been trying new things, Momma says she tired of my mood swings” so yeah you have a pretty good idea of what is to come but, no… a meta mood swing in the form of two hip-hop bangers. The first a hard African percussion inspired ‘MS BEHAVE’ preceding the more playful, punny, melodic pre-release single ‘CHANEL PIT’.
CHANEL PIT (Official Music Video)
As the album transitions into its second act, it becomes a lot more intimate, I mean we’re in R&B/soul album territory. A lot of it explores the female psyche; love and relationships, foibles and more with enough of a feminine quality to feel impassioned but lacking in vulnerability. However, the true stand outs from this section aren’t based on an intimation of love between companions but a fourth-wall break where she expresses her gratitude to the listener (with a little bravado) in the song ‘ACCESSIBLE’ and ‘IMAGINARY FRIENDS’ which serves as a duality for a romance with a loyal partner or a loyal fan while tripling as the transition for the album’s third act.
This could actually be the mania (referencing the manic-depressive mental note earlier) she was building up to all along. Here she offers a smorgasbord of what is her version of mass-market singles with genres ranging from pop, alternative and hip-hop and rap over a progression of tracks lead by the marching band style anthem ‘X’, then the 80’s-style pop song vocalizing her ideal date in the portmanteau ‘MOOVIES’ (spoiler alert: it’s dinner and a movie), ‘DIFFICULT’ a song about coping with life’s… difficulties. The next three run of songs are in my mind the most catchy of the album’s 15 tracks although they don’t sound like they were engineered to strive for perfection instead just a bunch of songs hastily cobbled together and dumped on the record but done so methodically. If you think of music as an artist’s attempt to monopolize a moment then ‘SHOWER SONG’ might just win over people who care for things like “personal hygiene”… She even goes as far as recommending her preferred hygiene product. I tried it, best shower ever! (the song, not the product…)
SHOWER SONG (Official Music Video)
SHOWER SONG might just win over people who care for things like “personal hygiene”… She even goes as far as recommending her preferred hygiene product
The next pair of songs ‘INVITATION’ and ‘SNAKE EYES’ feel like filler mainly cause they lean on the more orthodox side of the spectrum but are still an enjoyable jaunt that eventually segues into the album’s closing moments with a couple of tracks whose searches should flag the same warning you get when you try to look up a way to commit suicide… for someone who doesn’t appreciate morbid humour.
‘TWO NIGHT’ superficially seems like it is a deictic struggling artist on the brink of suicide but what it really is a set of self-deprecating jokes and nuggets of wisdom performed with the cadence of a stand-up set while casually announcing a career break. The album’s final song ’27 CLUB’ is just harmonies of the word “suicide” over lyrics that are a list of reasons why jumping out the 16th floor window of your office building is a good idea but not really.
27 CLUB is a series of harmonies of the word “suicide” over lyrics that are a list of reasons why jumping out the 16th floor window of your office building is a good idea but not really…
27 CLUB (Official Music Video)
Does this prove my thesis? Not sure but writing this review gave me a peek behind the curtain of a hyper-creative, imaginative mind whose wit, ability to weave an intricate narrative into what I can call easily one of the most unique sonic experiences I’ve heard in a while and no that’s not a euphemism for “not that great” as a matter of fact, while it may be recency bias I’ll stake my reputation as a self-declared ‘arbiter of play’ and say it is deserving of honours.
