Uffie - Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans

Tagline: ‘Oh you wear H&M, I’m Paul Smith, bitch.’

‘Why is this being hyped so much?’ Was my first reaction after hearing ‘Pop The Glock’ by French-American electro rap artist Uffie. To me it sounded like a poppy, but in no way exceptional track by yet another young female electropop starlet. There had to be something I was not hearing, I figured, in anticipation of her first full length studio album ‘Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans’. It turned out there wasn’t. Uffie may well be one of the worst mc’s around. Her flow is questionable at best, her lyrics constantly battle with mediocrity and even autotune can’t cover up the fact that she’s not much of a singer either. Sounds like a done deal then: zero stars and let’s never mention her again. But Uffie, real name Anna-Catherine Hartley, makes it clear from the start that she doesn’t aim at being the best. ‘I never claimed to be an artist, I can’t even sing, you know’ she explains in ‘Our Song’. It’s precisely that relativistic self-analysis, which resounds throughout the whole album more or less explicitly, that keeps her from going down like a lead balloon. 

The thing about Uffie is that she is a fighter. Born in Miami, her parents took her with them to Hongkong when she was four. When she was fifteen she moved to Paris with her father where she dropped out of school after getting a chance to make it in music. Her first releases back in 2006 (‘Pop The Glock’ and B-side ‘Ready to Uff’) soon made her the talk of the (underground) town, but personal issues stalled the production process of her debut album, which was originally planned for 2007. Now Uffie may not be as good technically as the Amanda Blanks of this world, but she’s resilient. At age 23, she was back to being single, ready to reestablish her career, while trying to raise her kid at the same time. She took the time to get everything back on track ignoring the passing momentum for her debut. Despite it all she still found her way to the right people and last summer she was finally ready to release. The result may not be an excellent record, but it’s a good effort. 

And she doesn’t refrain from sassing back at the critics. ‘Art of Uff’ is your text book example of self-aggrandizement; part act, part attitude, but indispensible for any self-respecting MC. In ‘Ricky’ the same diva emerges, as she asks her entourage if it would be possible to get some trained monkeys to mix some songs (‘Can you do that?’). But it’s with a sense of wit as she wonder whether it’s ‘the cute monkeys like in a Michael Jackson video’. And ‘maybe we can get them sailor costumes, that’s what I need’. Not that it’s her eloquence that sets her apart: ‘You got an empty fridge, bitch / not me, I eat good’ is far from being lyric of the year. In fact, it’s so poor that it becomes kind of funny. But it works because it expresses what she does best. ‘I’m an entertainer not a lyricist’, she sings in ‘MCs Can Kiss’ a cheerful and chaotic tune, which comprises the essence of her talent. ‘I even tried out to a saxophone and you’d be the first to find out how it sounds’, she concludes and takes off with an suitably bad sax solo. And fade out. 

Admittedly, her beats or not revolutionary, but she does show versatility and above all manages to keep it interesting. And having said that, ‘ADD SUV’ is one of the coolest track of the past year. What it ultimately comes down to is that Uffie makes do with what she can and she does so without misplaced pretense. She never hesitates to question herself by not really trying to hide her lacking skills (if anything she emphasizes them through her excessive vocoder-use), but at the same time silences all the haters by pointing out her success. She did make it to where she is now despite all that. ‘Don’t worry if I write rhymes’, she sings on ‘Difficult’, ‘I write checks’, as if to make people understand that there is no need to interfere with her business. It is with this much needed dose of humor mixed with her don’t-mess-with-me-just-‘cause-I-look-cute-attitude that she manages to keep her act together. ‘Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans’ is by no means a great record, but for a bad one it’s surprisingly good.


Tracklist
1. Pop The Glock
2. Art Of Uff
3. ADD SUV (ft. Pharrell Williams)
4. Give It Away
5. MCs Can Kiss
6. Difficult
7. First Love
8. Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans
9. Our Song
10. Illusion Of Love (ft. Mattie Safer)
11. Neuneu
12. Brand New Car
13. Hong Kong Garden
14. Ricky