Have you ever wondered what a girl keeps locked away in her diary? Have you ever been tempted to crack the sacred book open, tracing your finger over the swirls of gel pen to uncover a person's greatest secrets? Well, popstar Addison Rae has popped the lock to her own diary, inviting listeners into her world of fame, fashion, and vulnerability through her debut album Addison.
You may be most familiar with Addison Rae through her early TikTok career, where she was known for popularizing simple 15-second dances. During this era, she had various ups and downs, including internet scandals, public relationships, and memeable moments that all led to her becoming either massively disliked or simply not taken seriously. This all changed beginning in 2022 when Addison was spending time in New York. Her aesthetic and demeanour changed from catering to these preppy girls and TikTok fiends, and she began to delve into this sleazy, loosely Tumblr-esque persona, slowly slipping away into a slight obscurity.
[ Addison via Instagram ]
Come early 2024, she soft-launched herself back into the mainstream by featuring on Charli xcx’s ‘Von Dutch’ remix. While her verses were commonly overlooked upon the track's initial release, her ad-libbed scream grabbed everyone's attention, with people becoming obsessed with her creative choice. That feature, alongside Addison's occasional pop-ups at Charli’s Brat performances and Boiler Room Set, set up Addison to release her first single off her upcoming project ‘Diet Pepsi’. The track well surpassed the intended audience, leading Addison to even perform the track at the SWEAT Tour New York Date- a concert she was not even on the bill for.
With each release of Addison's other four singles, ‘Aquamarine’, ‘High Fashion’, ‘Headphones On’, and ‘Fame is a Gun’, the rising star created a consistent level of hype around her album. With every reveal, fans continued to put their trust in Addison, trusting her full creative vision for the project. On June 6th, when Addison finally touched down on streaming, it was an instant hit. By the end of the album’s first official release day, it racked up 13.4 million streams, with 4 tracks hitting the chart, and artists from Doechii to Porter Robinson congratulating Addison.
[ Addison Album Cover]
Some listeners seemed completely entranced by Addison, with people latching onto that early 2000s aesthetic that Addison managed to carry into the album both musically and visually. For others, the project didn’t hit as hard. They believed the singles released were far better than anything else shoved onto the album, deeming it a miss.
One thing everyone seemed to enjoy, regardless of their opinions on the music, was that it was refreshing and important to see that the album was entirely women-led. Outside of Addison herself, Swedish producer Elvira Anderfjard and LA-based songwriter/producer Luka Kloser were the only ones credited on the project. For women to already be so discredited within the music scene, and Addison facing that discredit tenfold due to her past career, it was extremely powerful and important to see the skills of these talented female producers be uplifted, as well as Addison getting the proper opportunity to express herself and create something authentic to her without a ‘music man’ trying to stifle her vision.
As someone who thoroughly enjoyed Addison (and has been predicting her rise to popstardom since July of last year) so much so that I asked a friend to grab me a copy from her workplace on release day, I’ll be breaking down the 12 song album track by track, noting all my favourite moments and what tracks you could maybe leave behind after a first listen.
[ Addison Tracklist ]
‘New York’ gives us a starting point for the album. Listeners have the opportunity to put themselves in Addison’s beat-up red bottom heels as she outlines her first night and life-changing experience in the Big Apple. She repeats “Love New York” almost like a mantra throughout the entire track. It reminds me of when you’re out somewhere new and enjoying yourself so much that you never want to leave, and that's the only thought in your mind. Lyrically, I love the vulgarity of Addison calling herself a “Dance Whore”, and how blunt it feels. She does a similar thing within ‘High Fashion’ with the lyric “You know I'm not an easy fuck, But whеn it comes to shoes, I'll be a slut”. The best moment in ‘New York’, however, is when Addison says “Chew Gum, Kick Drum” and after a brief pause, we hear the kick drum right away for the very first time.
Following ‘New York’ is the track everyone knows and loves, ‘Diet Pepsi’. From the lyrics, the way Addison sings, and even the beat of the track, ‘Diet Pepsi’ is utterly sultry. This is the type of song where you stare out the car window, imagining a raunchy summer romance. It can also be something that you hear from a bar patio while you’re walking to the club, cigarette pressed between your lips, body glitter shining in the setting sun. By the time you reach your destination, all that's playing in your head is Addison repeating “Say you love me”, and you think of that until you get home and replay the track over and over again. ‘Diet Pepsi’ is addictive, and if it had of released in July rather than August, it could have rivalled ‘Espresso’ for song of the summer.
‘Money is Everything’ is one of my favourites off Addison. Addison opens the track with this spoken word poetry piece that ends with “Can’t a girl just have fun?”. Fun is exactly what she has on the track, as the warping beat supports pop-culture-filled lyrics, and an outro that is just Addison alongside some friends roughly recording some vocals, making it sound like we’ve just walked into a karaoke sleepover. The single verse on this track is so brutally catchy and iconic that I find myself humming consistently throughout the day. I mean, “Wanna roll one with Lana, get high with Gaga”? Who wouldn’t get that stuck in their head? ‘Money is Everything’ also holds maybe one of the best lyrics on the album, that being “And the girl I used to be is still the girl inside of me”. It captures something so vulnerable yet relatable, something I think most people can understand, especially those who have undergone a massive ‘change’ in their lives.
To round off what I call the first act of the album is ‘Aquamarine’. The dreamy and aquatic track shares the title with the 2006 mermaid comedy, which Addison has referenced multiple times, including in a recent interview with GQ when describing her sneakers. Given this was the second single off the project, most listeners are heavily familiar with the track and accompanying dance. However, if you’ve somehow escaped hearing ‘Aquamarine’, brace yourself to dive into the Mako Mermaid Moon Pool to hear a true siren's song. Through the tracks' synths, Addison creates an atmosphere that's both bubbly and hazy, as if you’re hidden behind a rock simply watching this ethereal mermaid from afar. However, if you’re more suited for a more grounded sound, or something a little shipwreck-esque, Addison collaborated with Arca to release ‘Arcamarine’, the ‘Aquamarine’ Remix. You can stream it HERE.
‘Lost & Found’ is used as an interlude to tie ‘Aquamarine’ and ‘High Fashion’ together. There’s nothing profound here, but it allows for the album to have this cohesiveness, and without it, the two tracks would have been awkwardly slotted together. Addison brings us back to full-length tracks with ‘High Fashion’, a song that has this clear early Britney Spears inspiration. Upon its initial release, not everyone was ready to get ‘High Fashion’ with Addison, as listeners struggled to latch onto the sound. Honestly, I feel a similar way, as after my first listen, I was left a little unsatisfied. Since then, the track has grown on me immensely, but I believe this is a ‘vibe-specific song’. It’s not meant to be listened to at just any point of the day; you need to be in the mood for it.
‘Summer Forever’ is an honest love song, with the muse presumably being Omer Fedi, a musician who Addison has been dating since 2021. The lyrics in the track are vivid descriptors of the best parts of a relationship, outlining not only the rich moments of true love but also the trust and vulnerability that Addison has with the muse. I would absolutely kill to see someone use this track as the basis for a romance film, one where the two main characters were so violently in love it makes you a little sick.
Contrasting ‘Summer Forever’ is ‘In The Rain’, a track that immediately moves away from this optimistic love and launches into feelings of insecurity. With a simple drum, piano, and synth as a bass, Addison shares this internal monologue with fans, explaining how she needs to answer for her past, is commonly misunderstood, and of course, can only cry ‘In The Rain’. When you first hear the song, it may come across as Addison owning up to these things and saying she won't sweat it, but her vocals and somberness in production leave the impression that she is only saying this to put on a show, and that maybe she’s deeply effected by the publics perception with her. ‘In The Rain’ also ends what I call the second act of the album.
‘Fame is a Gun’ was Addison's last single, and may just be my favourite track of Addison. The track dips with confidence and ego, in a way that feels almost careless. Addison openly says she has gotten a taste of the ‘glamorous life’, a line that is not only a reference to Sheila E’s ‘The Glamorous Life’, but also stands to represent all the fame Addison has acquired throughout her career. It seems that, regardless of whether that fame is good, bad, shameful, whatever, Addison is craving it, and she always wants more. Even if you’re not digging deeply into the lyrics, ‘Fame is a Gun’ is bound to dominate summer playlists as there's something so sassy about the beat and overall composition, all I can imagine is parting with your friends under the setting sun, drinking by the pool in lavish bikini tops, and taking digicam photos off it all to post on your finsta afterwards. If you’re planning on listening to any song off Addison, I would 100% recommend ‘Fame is a Gun’ to you.
There's a weird drop in energy coming off ‘Fame is a Gun’ into ‘Times Like These’, which made me a little adverse to the track during my first few listens of Addison. It feels as if the track would have been better suited to be placed either before or after ‘In The Rain’, as they both carry a calmer and introspective composition. However, after hearing the lyrics “My life moves faster than me, Can't feel the ground beneath my feet,” alluding to this disconnected feeling that comes along with fame, I began to see the creative choice to have ‘Times Like These’ play right after ‘Fame is a Gun’. It feels like this crash of adrenaline, as if you’ve just gone mad with power and have finally clicked back into your own mortality.
‘Life’s No Fun Through Clear Waters’ opens the third and last act of Addison. Similarly to ‘Lost & Found’, it is an interlude that helps transition into the next track, ‘Headphones On’, which references the interlude's title during the bridge. ‘Headphones On’ feels like Addison's most authentic track on the entire project. That being said, I don’t believe anything on Addison is performative by any means, but that ‘Headphones On’ feels wildly human and grounded. I may be getting that impression by the deep, nearly hidden bass, subtle violins, and simplistic drums, all of which feel significantly less dreamy than the rest of the project. But more so, I think Addison’s lyric choices here were just so honest, something I’d chat with a friend about over coffee or see them post on their close friend's story. ‘Headphones On’ is this universal song of sorts, one that doesn’t centre around fame or experiences that are so outside of ordinary life, and that’s what makes it special.
Though ‘Headphones On’ may not be the perfect closer to Addison that everyone was expecting, regardless, she will certainly go down in history as a fan favourite and one of the album's best.
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