Album review: Cork-born Biig Piig spits out quality tunes on Bubblegum
Biig Piig, Bubblegum.
★★★★☆
Pop is re-imagined as a rollercoaster through a dark and delirious otherworld on the debut mini-album from Cork-born producer and songwriter Jessica Smyth. “Bubblegum” suggests music that is bright and throwaway. However, the opposite is the case across seven tracks full of energy yet which ripple with a mournful melancholy.
Smyth doesn’t go out of her way to hide her influences: there are flashes of everyone from Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa to Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey. But she puts her own stamp on these sounds, with barbed beats and vocals that impact with a brooding punch.
Smyth has had a fascinating life and career. That was true long before she became a name to watch in British pop as part of London’s “Nine8” collective of writers, rappers and DJs.
She was born in Cork. From there, she spent the first eight years of her life in Marbella (her brother had a lung condition – the family relocated to take advantage of the warm weather). After that, the Smyths moved to Ardmore in Waterford and from there to Tralee. Eventually, the ended up in Hammersmith, in London, where they took over the running of a pub.
The transition from suburban Kerry to inner London was stark and left a lasting impact on Jessica. As, you suspect, did a 2020 move to Los Angeles, where the EP was largely recorded. You can hear all of that in her songwriting, which is as varied as her upbringing.
A haze of rococo funk announces 'Only One', the first track on the EP. She can do straightforward power balladry, too, as announced by the monochrome 'Ghosting'. Yet the ennui that is one of her hallmarks takes on a more urgent hue on the twitching 'Liquorice'. That's before she delivers an unashamed banger with 'Kerosene' – which impacts as a sort of Celtic Grimes.
“Come set it all alight,” she declares on the insistent chorus. What’s about to catch ablaze, you suspect, is Smyth’s career.
