Reinvention takes just half an hour. Rebecca Black finds that out for herself on Let Her Burn. Listeners did just that for a decade after the release of Friday, a nothing pop hit that was accelerated by a social buzz from simple hatred for the end of the working week, and the singer at the heart of it. No more time for that or the image that is associated with it, Black has successfully removed an image that was unceremoniously thrown onto her. Erase You, the track opener, pushes for that “whole new side of me” with some powerful electropop momentum behind it. That momentum sticks to an alt-pop piece dependent on heavy dub instrumentals and electronic dance styles.
Reinvention and mockery go hand in hand. Black sounds keen to taunt and mock while adapting a drum and bass beat that brings Sub Focus and Wilkinson stylings to the forefront. Electronic insertions on Misery Loves Company take precedence on a track that craves toxicity for its sexuality but takes a fumbled tonal shift when graveyards and grimness are thrown in with little build for it to make much impact. Crumb starts to lose its grasp on the charged and dense melodies, and the slip that Doe Eyed presents is a shame but inevitable. That slip is brief. Black proves time and time again on Let Her Burn that her best tracks are those that give her the chance to write. Her lyrics are of constant quality and are cemented by Sick To My Stomach.
Drunken tears and regressive memories, lying to the self and holding out hope are all in that Sick To My Stomach classiness. Black’s honesty is the core. Let Her Burn may start as a pyre for old imagery, but it does not take long for this debut album to take a tone of its own. Darker, harsher and percussion-heavy stylings that break occasionally to give focus to Black’s lyrics. What Am I Gonna Do With You is a flip of power and perspective. Black burns an old image and regains control of a new and focused offering here. As intense as it is deserved, barely audible whining notes flicker on a track that questions what to do with a newfound position of strength.
An acceptable stretch of Let Her Burn gives Black a chance to reform a persona she had never had any control over until now. As fundamental a shift as perhaps expected, Black warrants this change of pace but there is something inevitable about how these perspectives are formed and how retaliation to reactionary dogpiling a decade ago comes to the forefront. Working hard and pushing through with this half-hour debut LP is exceptional, with spotty highs and consistently solid mixes that give those electronic undercurrents a beat-worthy working. Destroy Me is a crucial highlight in getting to the core of reinvention but also in engaging with how buoyed Let Her Burn is by how much of an opposition it takes to the early works. Black has let her burn, whatever “her” was. Let Her Burn razes and destroys as much as it can, and it works as a successful, credible debut.
