There’s always been a sense of whimsicality inherent to Shygirl, from the 3D animated Bratz-like avatars of 2020’s ALIAS to the fairytale romance of Cleo, it’s the way she juxtaposes and balances this cutsie girliness with her otherwise irreverent persona that makes for something unexpected and beguiling. It’s literally baked into her name. On Siren for instance, her mermaid on the rocks wrecks cars instead of ships, drowning men on the dancefloor rather than the deep. Her debut album NYMPH sees the London singer-songwriter and rapper exploring this side of herself more than ever before, imagining herself as a playful, sexed up sylph dressed in Adidas. She’s at her most interesting when she gives in to her imagination, and Shygirl is smart to follow this instinct with NYMPH. Despite being her debut LP, it feels like there was a lot pinned to this album. ALIAS is the sort of groundbreaking, zeitgeist shifting EP that comes to define its maker for the rest of time; Shygirl’s obvious challenge with NYMPH is to prove that we have only just touched the tip of her iceberg.
Shygirl’s artistry is possibly most recognised for her outward sexuality. It’s strikingly liberating. She adopts the scuzzy braggadocioussness of her male counterparts to speak about her own sexuality on her own terms. It’s made her music somehow deeper than what it may come across at face value. Even her most vapid lyrics turn anthemic for the scores of queer clubkids and night creatures who have turned her into an underground icon. NYMPH is likely not the album they might have expected Shygirl to make, but it’s the album they needed from her. It reveals an artist unafraid to change the rules of her own game, and more often than not the experimentation pays off. It’s no ALIAS, but NYMPH is entirely its own creature, with a cohesive overall vision and tight production that never strays too far from its overall aesthetic. Shygirl has always been an aestheticist at heart, and this debut shows that when she’s given the scope of an LP to work with, her brush strokes are going to be bawdy, bizarre, and beautiful.
Download and stream NYMPH here
The most remarkable thing about NYMPH is how confident the music here comes across. While the album’s singles have been difficult to locate in Shygirl’s discography up until this point, on NYMPH they become essential to the whole. This is the sort of album that makes the most sense from top to tail. It’s like entering an alternate universe of early 2000’s club music tropes, 90’s R&B clichés, fairy-charm necklaces, and translucent lip gloss set in a strip club. It sounds incredibly different from whatever she’s done before, but isn’t a complete pivot from her brand. Rather, it’s an evolution. NYMPH is feather light, wispy, and ethereal, in contrast to the bass heavy grime and hyperpop of ALIAS, while Shygirl’s lyrics remain rooted in tongue-in-cheek sexual freedom. On Coochie (a bedtime story) for instance, shel adopts a whimsy, starry-eyed tone against twinkling breakbeats as she sings a lullaby from the point of view of her vagina. On Honey, a dreamy and mellow jungle/bass hybrid, she oozes everywhere through a syrupy vocal filter as she croons somewhere between a sigh and a moan. It’s the melding of the nymph with the nympho.
Most of Shygirl’s usual collaborators are back, with Sega Bodega and Mura Masa having the most presence across the album. Bodega is likely to be credited for NYMPH’s strange, ethereal moments. The sweaty Shlut, also with Bloodpop, borders its TRL-era hip-pop with alien glitch noises, while the urgent interlude Missin U is set to a demented xylophone arepeggio. Arca works magic on Come For Me, one of the album’s harder edged cuts, but her jagged and decaying dembow is softened by a hypnotic, siren-like delivery from Shygirl. Of her peers, only she can round up this number of pop’s biggest oddball personalities and deliver something as distinct and as cohesive as this album. As with most of her music, NYMPH is proudly referential. Poison, the album’s surefire party starter, is a clear take on Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina’s Stereo Love, a eurodance house track featuring an accordion riff and drawled out vocals from Shygirl. These callbacks make NYMPH an ostensibly fun listen, at its best when it’s not taking itself too seriously. Tracks like Nike and Little Bit are vapid at best, but it’s in this sort of space that Shygirl tends to have the most fun with her references and wordplay, and they’re audaciously enjoyable to listen to.
Watch the music video for Shlut from NYMPH below.
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