Sky Ferreira is more than a drug addict

McClatchy Tribune

Sky Ferreira has been getting a lot of attention in the media due to her recent arrest allegedly involving possession of ecstasy, but drug related woes are not the only thing keeping Ferreira in the spotlight.

Ferreira released her hit single “Everything is Embarrassing” last year creating a lot of noise around the music industry.

In the single, Ferreira sang conversationally and effortlessly, “Maybe if you let me be your lover/ Maybe if you try then I would not bother/ Telling me that basically you’re not looking out for me… / Could have been my anything, now everything’s embarrassing.”

The Los Angeles Times and Billboard named “Everything is Embarrassing” one the best songs of 2012.

Listeners have been anticipating a full-length album from Ferreira for a while, now she finally delivered “Night Time, My Time.”

Ferreira appears topless on the album cover in the shower with a very somber gaze on her face. The cover artwork expresses a certain sense of rawness and vulnerability; the songs on the album seem to reflect the same.

“Night Time, My Time” is full of surprises, one being that there is no duplicate of Ferreira’s hit “Everything is Embarrassing” anywhere on the album.

One thing listeners will experience is a form of authentic punk euphoria. Many of the tracks could be described as nostalgic.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Ferreira said she did not want to make a retro album but admits to being inspired by many older sounds.

Ferreira opens the album with “Boys,” the only track that comes slightly close to bubbly pop.

“Boys” is not the typical sappy anthem. She sings about her love/hate relationship with boys and what it was like to finally find a good one.

“You put my faith back in boys / Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye….”

The melodramatic lyrics are hard to decipher at some points but it works in combination with the grungy guitar in the background.

Ferreira goes on to expose her emotion a bit on “I Blame Myself”.

“Underneath it all, I know it’s all your fault, that you don’t understand, I blame myself,” Ferreira starts off calm and then blows up.

“How could you know what it feels like to fight the hounds of hell?… / How could you know what it feels like to be outside yourself?… / I just want you to realize I blame, I blame myself for my reputation.”

Throughout “Night Time, My Time” Ferreira puts listeners in a trance with tracks like “Omanko” where she confuses and intrigues all at once, as she murmurs “Oh Japanese Jesus / Oh Japanese Jesus come on… / I’m gearing up for a Japanese Christmas!”

Ferreira slows things down and closes the album perfectly with the track “Night Time, My Time.”

As she sings about dreaming of moving and falling in space, the lyrics trail off and it begins to sound like Ferreira got sucked into to a black hole and then poof, she is gone.

This neurotic album probably is not what most people expected from Ferreira but it fits her perfectly.

Anisca Miles can be reached at [email protected]