"I Blame the World" by Sasha Alex Sloan, Wednesday, March 15, 2023 (partial repost)

The self-identified sad-girl Sasha Alex Sloan made a "mad record" in 2022. There was a podcast I listened to reacting to Sloan's EP Self-Portrait. While the podcasters enjoyed the EP, they hoped that Sloan would never make a full-length record. She did Only Child is a heart-breaking masterpiece, but it pulls back from the gut-wrenching, sometimes mean-spirited lyricism of her EPs. On last year's I Blame the World, Sloan is caustic as ever. So, this record may not resonate with you. The title track "I Blame the World" is probably the most catchy, but the other songs are worth a listen. Emo surely is alive in 2022.

WHY TALK TO GOD IF I AIN'T GOT PROOF HE'S EVEN THERE? When I counted down my favorite albums of last year, Sasha Alex Sloan's I Blame the World was my seventh favorite record, which is code in my blog for I didn't listen to it that much. I think that Sloan writes better when she's more sad than angry. There are certainly enough things to be furious at in 2022. Sloan was born in 1995, and like all millennials, has watched the world get shittier and shittier since 2016. I Blame the World is the soundtrack of world leaders basically deciding to bring about the apocalypse, slowly. From Donald Trump's presidency to the erosion of human rights around the globe to the threat of "Global Warming" to the complete shit show in Sloan's ancestral countries of Russia and Ukraine, I Blame the World feels like it should be the soundtrack to not only 2022 but for the foreseeable future. But there's only so much anger the singer can express before sounding monotonous. "Live Laugh Love" takes the basic white girl motto and rejects the Instagram culture of "living your best life." Sloan says, "Don't wanna live my best life / Just wanna lay here all night." Pandemic lingo also seeps into the record on "New Normal" being a life without the one she loves. I still think that Sloan is one of the best pop songwriters today, but I think that I Blame the World is overwrought with negativity, which makes the record start to rely on clichés and lose the listener's willingness to invest.

WHY GET HIGH WHEN EVERYONE EVENTUALLY COMES DOWN? "I Blame the World" as a song sounds halfway between an '80s New Wave track and an angry girl rock ballad from the '90s. Sasha Alex Sloan keeps her voice in a low register throughout the song, drawing similarities to Miley Cyrus, yet never belting out the chorus an octave higher, although I had a false memory of Sloan doing that until I listened to the song to analyze it. The video for the song also draws '90s comparisons. It's ultra-low budget with Sloan singing into a hairbrush and two members of her band playing air bass and air drumming to the song. The trio is dressed in awful outfits that look like bowling clothes, with tacky flames on the shirt and pants. The flame seems to be related to the video of the album's lead single "WTF," which features Sloan singing as her apartment catches fire. I Blame the World is a song cycle of problems as unsolvable as life in the 21st century. And after a long day that's been longer than it should because everyone is working short-staffed with no significant raise, I wonder, what really is the cost of treating everyone with a little kindness? I want to blame the world for not being able to do anything. I want to blame Elon Musk for transitioning from technologies that could save the world from the impending climate crisis to delving into right-wing politics and crashing the 747 that is Twitter into the side of a mountain. I want to blame Bezos who made more money than ever during the pandemic, yet his company threatened to fire employees who tried to flee a distribution center when a tornado hit. I want to blame every boss who says that you can work 10% harder this year. I want to blame Sasha Alex Sloan's booking agency for bringing her to Seoul on a Monday night during the busiest time of the year for a worn-out teacher. I want to blame the world, but what comes of that? Tomorrow I'll be more optimistic.

Music video: