Review: Iggy Azalea, Survive the Summer

Despite being less than 20 minutes in length, Survive the Summer is surprisingly enervating.

Iggy Azalea, Survive the SummerIggy Azalea abandons all pretenses of pop on Survive the Summer, her first major release since her 2014 debut album, The New Classic. A preview of the Australian rapper’s long-awaited sophomore effort, this EP is consistent to a fault, laser-focused both sonically and thematically, abandoning the groove centricity of singles like the slept-on banger “Mo Bounce” and the recent “Savior.” All six songs are uniformly dark, weird, and minimalist, with stark verses filled almost exclusively with assertions about Azalea’s figurative and literal assets. “Survive the Summer” is a classic boast track that references the record-label shakeup that led to the shelving of her album Digital Distortion: “If I don’t like it then I switch/Label trippin’ so I switch/Which one, which one?” At times, Azalea seems aware of the caricature she’s created: “Hey Iggy” confronts rumors about her alleged plastic surgery, while the spare “Kawasaki” features the hilariously humblest of boasts (“I used to get the chicken fingers, but now I get the lobster”). Despite being less than 20 minutes in length, Survive the Summer is surprisingly enervating. “Tokyo Snow Trip” is inventive but repetitive, and like the slinky Middle Eastern flute that underpins “O.M.G.,” the title track’s sleek synth line and ominous piano chords are buried beneath an unrelenting trap beat. The EP paints a bleak portrait of one cruel summer.

Score: 
 Label: Island  Release Date: August 3, 2018  Buy: Amazon

Alexa Camp

Alexa is a PR specialist, writer, and fashionista.

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