Little love for Amanda Blank's I Love You

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Little love for Amanda Blank's I Love You

POSTED: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 8:10 PM

Filed Under: Music Philly Bands

Michael T. Regan

We over at City Paper were no doubt excited for Philly gal Amanda Blank's debut album I Love You. We did, after all, publish a cover story previewing it. (Take a full listen here.) I personally think it's no M.I.A. or Santigold 'but those bars are way high, seeing as how the two ladies have put out the best dance albums in, perhaps, decades. Still, it's fun and empowering and raunchy, with catchy/spazzy hits like "Make It Take It" and unexpected sweet spots like "Leaving You Behind." I definitely wouldn't give it a 2.0, which is what Pitchfork rated it. Here's a bite:

Only "DJ", with its burbling techno groove, really succeeds at wringing something useful from Blank's "persona," evocatively communicating the self-abnegation of loneliness without sounding too much like a Peaches-level lobotomy victim. Of course, it's sandwiched between two tracks that troublingly rely on a beloved 1980s pop classic for much of their juice, Blank's Top Ranking mixtape holdover "A Love Song" (interpolating LL Cool J's "I Need Love") and I Love You's first single, the pointlessly "titillating" "Might Like You Better," which cannibalizes Romeo Void's "Never Say Never." Keep in mind, to date these are Blank's two best-known songs.

Hum. Did they just call Peaches a lobotomy victim? That makes the whole review feel a little sexist, maybe. Anyway, not everyone was so rough on Blank. Rolling Stone gave it three stars out of five:

This Philly rapper's got a mouth your mother could love ' if your mom was Lil' Kim. "Tryin'-a get up in my pussy and smash ' I'm Beyonc', independent woman, handle that!" she brags on "Let Me Get Some," a booming highlight on her debut. Other tracks run tamer: blank machine-gun one-liners about makeup and true love over New Wave club beats by Diplo and Switch.

More importantly, what do you think?

aaron

Posted 2009-08-20 03:55:28

I think the album is tight.  Listened to it many times over, and it's great.  Some of the softer tracks threw me off, but I really dig the whole thing.  I give it 3-3/4 stars, for very good, but it just makes me more excited to see how her music develops and what she will come up with next.

James Lofton

Posted 2009-08-30 02:48:57

The album as a whole is pretty weak. Its obviously a compilation(basically a 'Best of Amanda Blank'), and that shouldn't be the case when it's your debut album. It consists of a few killer tracks sandwiched between filler, and its short duration makes this inexcusable. A 30 minute record should not have 20 minutes of filler. This album just sunk off the charts, and rightfully so.



She also seems to be having an identity crisis with this album. She cant decide if she wants to aim for the pop charts or stick to her faux underground labeling.



What also makes 'I Love You' stick out like a sore thumb are the other names attached to the project. Production issues arise, and neither Switch nor Diplo were able to give it the bombastic, in your face production that they did with Santigold, and even more so M.I.A.'s Kala, which was flawless.



Yeah I understand comparisons to those artists are unfair and she shouldn't be put in the position to be stacked up against their pedestals, but when you have the same hands in your cookie jar, the comparisons should be expected.



 She is definitely talented, and has loads of potential. Now if she can just decide what she wants to be....

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