Album review: Allie X - Cape God

Allie X has always been an odd artist to pin. Her image hasn't always been wholly reflective of her music. And everything that she does is comparable to somebody else, even if she had done it first. Cape God might be one of Allie X’s first releases which consciously seeks to carve out a clearer identity as to who Allie X is for those being introduced to her for the first time. A reset for Allie X and an attempt to drive a narrative that perhaps makes more sense from the outside than her CollXtion and Super Sunset releases did - as good as they were.

Allie X is one for creating characters, which I feel has often hurt her, because when you take her as a package, often-times the visual presentation supersedes the music, and creates these visual divides between albums, even though musically there is a thread which runs through each of them. Sure, Lady Gaga and Madonna to name a couple have changed up their images greatly with each album, but there was at least an establishing of their visual personas early on which stuck long enough for us to get used to it and accept it as who they are and that they might change. With Allie X, we’ve not really had this courtship period. So from CollXion to Super Sunset to Cape God is like 3 completely different people.

But Cape God feels like a conscious effort for audiences to get better acquainted with who Allie X is as an artist, a songwriter, a world builder and a storyteller. Super Sunset did a great job of this, but it was difficult to tell where the persona for that album ended and Allie X actually began. Maybe that was the whole point. Cape God by comparison feels like the removal of the curtain and the veil. A closer look at Allie X void of the fantastical world that she’d built herself for Super Sunset, as true to her experience as the songs were. And even though Cape God is inspired by fiction it doesn’t take away from the songs, even though it would’ve been easy for Allie to run with this and say ‘I’mma just write an album ‘bout these bitches named Sarah and Susie’.

The singles “Fresh Laundry” and “Regulars” did a great job of establishing the overall tone of the album, although they may have given the impression that all Allie was gon’ do is mope looking like homegirl from The Ring for a whole album, when this is far from the case. Cape God has bops and has greater range than you’d think going on these songs and the visuals alone.

Cape God is inspired by Heroin: Cape Cod, USA, a HBO documentary about the heroin epidemic in Massachusetts. Each song pulls from one of the people in the documentary, creating this woven story of a bunch of individuals who are adrift - fighting their own demons. You wouldn’t know this just by listening to the album, and it’s not even vital context for the album, because each song paints such a clear picture of its own story and narrative. Cape Gode is inspired by this HBO documentary, but it isn’t the overarching theme of it. That theme is loneliness, and a desire to fit in and belong.

Cape God feels very much like an album about somebody looking from the inside out. Giving a commentary on a world that seems to exist separate from them, but wanting to be a part of it, and clinging to moments when they are. The album opener "Fresh Laundry" is the perfect song to open the album with, because it completely sets the tone for Cape God, both sonically and thematically. Creating this world that feels all the more unfortunately relevant at a point in time where there’s a global pandemic, when all we can do is watch the world and our lives go by in isolation.

There is a constant fragility that underlies Cape God. A sense of not really knowing how to cope with a situation, but doing your best anyway. In addition to an awareness of your own fragility; living life close to the edge and finding comfort there because you’re always one step away from thinking ‘Fuck it’ and being done with it all, just as much as you’re one step away from wanting to genuinely belong and find your place in the world.

Allie X sells these concepts well, because they are part of her lived truths. And this isn’t even getting into her personal life, but just looking at her career. Allie X has yet to really breakthrough into the mainstream, despite working with artists who have (writing most of Troye Sivan’s albums, and songs for Seohyun of Girls’ Generation and BTS), and despite having a sound that is so ripe for A lists on the radio and pop playlists on Spotify and Apple Music. On one hand there’s a sense that Allie X doesn’t really want to fit in with everybody else, but a sense that she also kinda does. Which artist doesn’t want to break into the mainstream, perform at the VMA’s, go platinum, expand their fanbase and have the budgets to shoot music videos that get millions of views on YouTube and help secure their career? But then there’s the fear of what happens once you reach that tipping point. When you reach the point of no return and your whole life changes. How do you deal with additional scrutiny, more eyes on you, and the little anonymity that you had being chipped away? Just how adept would you be at managing to stay yourself and not allow everybody in this new world to change you in interests that aren’t best for you?. Allie X frames each song to specific moments, making them sound like something out of a teen drama, which heightens the stakes, because let’s face it - high school is ROUGH and when tensions be the highest. But if you know Allie X’s career, it’s not hard to place her in these stories. As that girl who is so different and quirky and doesn’t want to fit in, but is also tired of standing at her bedroom window looking out at everybody else. But even with specifics, the songs never feel like they are so specific that they lock you out of identifying with them.

Production on all of Allie X’s work has always been stellar, so it’s no surprise that Cape God’s production is immaculate. The more indie and funk driven sound gives the album a very distinct favour compared to the synth pop shenanigans of Allie X’s prior work. It also places this whole new focus on Allie X’s voice. Allie X has a greater range than I thought she did, and she does far more things with her vocal arrangements on Cape God than she has before. There are lots of cool harmonies and layered moments on songs that we hadn’t often gotten from Allie X before. But there’s also a notable shift in Allie X’s delivery. Allie X isn’t just singing these songs, she’s recounting stories through song in a way that really makes you lean into everything that she’s singing. The theatre kid be jumping out on each of these songs. I’m not sure if this was a conscious decision on Allie X’s part based on her decision to use a HBO documentary as inspiration, but well done bitch. It makes every song hit differently, and the production and Allie X’s approach to her vocals and delivery work in perfect tandem.

Narrative consistency comes with the territory of Allie X, as does sonic switches. The switch from Super Sunset’s more colourful and synth wave heavy cuts to more mellow, funk and indie style joints on a down groove may feel like a flip from the likes of “Science” and “Girl of the Year”, but it’s one that works. Allie X’s songwriting is still quirky and the body of work is still cohesive and fully realised.

Cape God is an album that you really do have to consume as a whole, THEN pick it apart. When you pluck the songs from the album, they don’t have the same impact - and this is probably the one downside, if you can call it that, coming off the back of Super Sunset, where every song which on its own had hit potential and would entice. This sounds like a slight on Cape God, but it isn’t. It’s nice to have an artist who still cares about creating a whole body of work from top to bottom at a time when so many artists and record labels favour the virality of one song over albums. In this sense Allie X feels like an artist out of step with a trend, once again at the window looking out. But sometimes it pays to not hang with the regulars. And Cape God is a case for how sometimes it pays to do your own thing your way, even if it leaves you a little lonely in the process. Because ultimately your own admission of not fitting in will create a community of people who can all not fit in together.

Put on your Wednesday Addams dress and raise your fig branches y’all. We ride at dawn.

VERDICT: WHERE THE FUCK IS SARAH?

Highlights:
■ Fresh Laundry
■ Devil I Know
■ Sarah Come Home 🔥
■ Rings a Bell
■ June Gloom 🔥
■ Super Duper Party People
■ Susie Save Your Love 🏆