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Being eliminated from the “Dream Academy” reality-TV series that produced Katseye might be the best thing that ever happened to 22-year-old Slovakian native Adéla Jergová: After a summer of lighting up festival stages
from Lollapalooza to Reading, the arrival of “Prima” makes it more obvious than ever that a group couldn’t contain her.
While her debut EP, last year’s “The Provocateur,” was hard-edged in sound and subject matter, her full-length bow tempers the toughness with a softer, dare we say more feminine touch, not only in the sound but the songwriting: The beats are hard but there are lighter pop hooks, and the combination makes for a sound that’s both more memorable and more unusual.
The melodic strength of the album isn’t surprising: Executive-produced by 100 Gecs’ musical wizard-turned-pop savant Dylan Brady and Blake Slatkin (who’s co-crafted hits for everyone from Sam Smith and Sienna Spiro to Charli xcx and Lil Nas X), the bulk of the album was written by them and Adéla with fellow top-shelf hitmakers Julia Michaels and Billy Walsh. This A-team brought their A-game, but what’s most striking is the variety of styles the album covers: There are flashes of Ariana Grande, Charli xcx, Lady Gaga, a waft of “College Dropout”-era Kanye West in the sped-up R&B loop on “Nicole Kidman” and a chopped-and-screwed hook on the closing “Ain’t in LA,” one of the year’s best singles.
But there’s never any question whose show this is: Adéla’s fiery personality swaggers all over the album, moving from confrontational badass to breathy seductress to heartbroken girlfriend, and her lyrics can be offhandedly hilarious: “Nobody wants dirty shoes/ nobody wants dad issues”; “Lately I’m lackin’/ A sense of reciprocity in your passion”; “Playing Nirvana, ride you in your Honda/ I like how you look at me like I’m the next Madonna.”
With hooks and attitude for days, “Prima” feels poised to be one of the breakthrough albums of the year. We’d say “a star is born” but it’s obvious Adéla knows she already is one.
