Story / Stella Arizona
Images / Christina Bryson
Ella Collier has spent years constructing momentum by singles, sync placements, and a rising fanbase that hosts Zoom calls in her honor. Vainness Truthful and The New York Occasions have fawned over her; she opened for Meg Smith and Grant Knoche in Los Angeles and debuted a tune reside on CBS Information, plus her observe “DON’T FOLLOW ME” was co-signed by Lizzo. All of that was the runway to her debut album, “DANGEROUS.” Although not essentially Freudian in its inception, the album does discover the intricate dance between the animalistic ID and the rationality of the Ego.
The album is quietly fearsome and even aggressive, with sure observe titles evoking a sharper edge that displays its title and overarching themes. Songs like “FIEND,” with its darkish synth pulse, “ICE QUEEN,” constructed on heavy drops, and “17,” with its stressed, driving melody, replicate the gritty, shadowed aesthetic Ella has made her personal. It balances modern pop readability with darker synth-driven atmospheres.
Two songs anchor the album’s emotional core. “ANIMAL,” impressed by a tarot card of the identical title, begins as a reflective piano ballad earlier than increasing right into a larger-than-life pop anthem about embracing harmful instincts that may be self-destructive but formative, carrying each danger and hard-won expertise.
“NAKED” follows as the purpose the place Ella removes any remaining distance between herself and the listener. The tune traces the lifecycle of a troublesome romance, concerning openness, outdated wounds, previous assault, and the fractured blueprints that after formed her understanding of affection. Fairly than counting on ambiguity, she turns outward with full readability, arriving on the assertion, “You will have now seen all of me.”
“DANGEROUS” lives as much as its title. Although Ella by no means ceases to be catchy and generally even upbeat, she manages to additionally make the album convey a way of unusual, foreboding rigidity at instances. A slight trace of oppressive cyberpunk atmosphere is palpable whilst she goes full-on groovy.
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