REVIEW #1: 64/100

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Iggy Azalea has come through in quite a fruitful year for debuts. 2020 has seen the rise of several new faces on the scene, but few have gotten the attention from within the industry that Iggy has. With some of the biggest names in music such as Maluma and Shawn Mendes giving her notices, she seems to have gotten her foot in the door quite confidently. Her debut album has just been released and it’s been surprisingly lowkey. There hasn’t been much done in terms of promotional efforts and it seems that, at least for the moment, she’s content to let the music speak for itself. It’s a bold strategy but stranger things have happened. 

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The album opens with an intro track titled “My Own Thing” which seems to be a sort of mission statement for the album that’s to follow. Due to it being an intro, there’s not much room for the song to really make a lasting impact but while it is here, it’s a serviceable introduction to the project. Lyrically, it’s nothing new and production wise it’s even less new, but it does essentially what it was supposed to so to that end, it’s successful. The first proper track, “Sixteen in Miami” continues thematically where the intro left off but does make a diversion into something else production wise. The song talks about how Iggy got to where she is right now and for the most part, it’s an admirable go at an autobiographical selection. Seeing as she’s so new to the scene, there’s some impressive lines here (“When you started with nothing, you will remember everything”), though it must be said some lines are quite rough. Those moments where the song stumbles lyrically don’t particularly stand out as troublesmome but they do grow more noticeable when compared to the lines that do land. Production wise the song is slower paced and uncomplicated, not really going anywhere from where it begins, but it’s perfectly pleasant and solid enough to get the job done, if not remarkably so. “For Iggy” walks on the same thematic ground but once more switches things up soundwise, offering something a bit warmer and summery. Lyrically the song doesn’t tell much of a different story from what we’ve gotten so far and it still fluctuates between moments that work and moments that fall flat (the second verse in particular is quite rough around the edges). The production has more life and energy to it than the previous track and while it’s again not anything remarkable or different, it keeps your attention. It’s a light and fluffy cut that may not be setting the charts on fire any time soon, but it’s a nice inclusion to the tracklist and a solid track even still. 

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“Real Life” is a difficult one to call anything more than serviceable. We stay on the subject matter that’s populated the album entirely so far and while it’s perfectly fine that she’s proud of herself (she deserves to be) getting four tracks in a row of the same sentiments doesn’t make for an exciting listen. Production wise the song coasts over a typical trap beat that offers nothing particularly new or interesting. It’s one of the weakest selections on the album to be sure. “Emotionless” thankfully improves things. Lyrically the song finally switches things up and gives us something different subject wise. Speaking about feeling emotionless due to how many partners have hurt her, the song is the first track on the album with consistently solid lyrics in the sense that there’s no moments that stand out as having fallen flat. It’s a tightly written track, not losing focus and getting to it’s point quickly. Production wise the song is again nothing all that special but the synths that populate it throughout are a nice addition to the sound, but it must be said that the basic trap beats are growing stale. “Cazador”, the album’s lead single, is a perfectly serviceable track though it’s not the strongest offering on the project. The beat has a Latin flavor which suits Maluma well but the trap elements are still rather tiresome. Lyrically the song is solid if inconsequential. It doesn’t deal with anything particularly unique and there’s no moments where Iggy and Maluma really play off of each other so his feature feels somewhat pointless. Even still, it’s easy to see why the song was successful. It’s a smooth inclusion that’s easy to get into it while it’s here even if it may not have much staying power. 

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“Make It Happen” continues the Latin flavor, this time offering significant selections in Spanish. It’s a nice little switch up in the proceedings and makes the song feel pretty fresh on the album, giving things a much needed stir. The lyrics themselves are pretty basic, spanish or not, dealing with sexual attraction. Though they don’t come off as anything near new, they work well for Iggy’s purposes and there're some cute moments that are quite quotable. Production wise the song is pretty much more of the same, just holding onto that trap beat and adding a few other elements. The production is by this point being quite outpaced by everything else, leaving the album’s sound quite dull so far. “Too Late” is Iggy’s run at an empowerment anthem and while there’s definitely some strong moments of that, the song overall just doesn’t connect the way that it was meant to. The lyrics are serviceable but quite cliche in their approach. The song doesn’t really say anything that we’ve not heard before. That issue is only amplified by the empty sounding production. To be blending in a piano into the mix, something we’d not heard up to this point in the album, the song still feels cut from the same cloth as the others, staying so tied to the same beat types. Only this goes around it just feels hollow with the lack of anything more than a repetitive piano line. It’s not the weakest track on the album but it is many ways the least interesting. “Already” does pick things up a bit with tighter and more focused lyricism. She’s still not really branching out or trying anything all that different, but the renewed focus makes the song feel far more purposeful and meaningful. The production work was quite intriguing until the basic trap beat came in which dampened the mood a little bit, but the sounds happening behind the boring beat, namely the piano and sirens, make the song sound a little deeper than many other cuts on the album and that’s always welcome. 

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“Wasted” finds itself hovering in the same territory that “Real Life” did, both sitting toward the bottom of the pack. The song’s biggest sin is that it’s boring in it’s totality. Elsewhere, the lyrics gave something to grasp onto even when the production didn’t, but both lyrics and production here fail to ignite anything more than passing interest. The lyrics can sometimes be quite rough (“All my friends, even Maluma, told me to cancel you” is a particularly rough spoit) and they’re not helped by genuinely bland and lazy production work. From a production side, it’s the weakest on the album without a doubt due to the complete lack of personality. Whereas “Real Life” and “Wasted” do hover toward the bottom, they’re kept from being dead last due to the presnce of “Pussy” which is undeniably the weakest cut off the album by quite a wide margin. Nothing really works on this track. The production work is the strongest element but even it is formulaic and nothing more than anything else on the album. But the lyrics really hold this one back. The song is a weak attempt at female empowerment. It’s intentions are admirable but the execution is messy. The hook is humorous which is probably not the intention, some lines seem to be copy and pasted from elsewhere in the album, and the whole purpose of the song gets lost inside this cycle. Tinashe comes off like she’s on autopilot, not adding any of her trademark style to the song. Though it could’ve been genuinely great, the song was probably better left on the cutting room floor. “Your Moment” thankfully picks up the pieces and manages to round things off in a fairly solid way. The production is again nothing to write home about but it feels appropriate for the subject matter and pairs far better with the lyrics than many selections do. The lyrics, while still being quite underpolished and derivative in some places, are some of the more focused here and keep things pretty steady. Her sentiments cannot be argued with and though the album’s true purpose is not always clear, this song ends things on a note that does remain once the final note has concluded. It’s a sweet moment to close things off with. 

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As far as debut albums go, this isn’t the weakest offering we’ve ever seen but it’s also quite far from the strongest. The thing that is perhaps most surprising about the album is that, for all of the personality Iggy herself has, there’s no real personality for the album. The beats are all mostly incredibly familiar and generic, rarely going any further than radio ready and factory assembled. The lyrics do have some spark but they’re held back by the wet blanket of the production work. Lyrically, Iggy’s got promise. It has to be said that many cuts could’ve used some more attention, a few more passes at the verses and hooks to really polish them, but save for one song, nothing gets genuinely bad. Iggy is at the start of her career and there’s plenty of places to go from here. She just needs to find herself and find her thing. The album doesn’t seem to have a true purpose or point and that holds it back, but as an introduction to Iggy, it could’ve gone a lot worse. At the least, this is a foundation that she can build something solid off of. There are a few genuinely good cuts on here to be sure and there’s reason to believe the next time we see her, we’ll be seeing something more refined and notable.

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REVIEW #2: 73/100

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The album has no wrongs when it comes to production, the slick R&B/Trap & Hip-Hop beats make the album top-notch but not everything can be as good. Iggy's debut album has some flaws, sometimes the Aussie rapper got some sloppy bars. For example, in the first track "My Own Thing", the production is great, and the first verse of the song is good but then Iggy starts repeating herself by saying first "He or she" and then again "Men and Women". The song overall is kinda repetitive but I guess that happens when you do a long verse for an introduction. But it did set the mood for the rest of the album per see. What I love about Iggy's album is that she doesn't care about sounding too upfront, she'd have in one bar something about struggling to become who she is and on the next one, she'd be calling her nose and nails fake. It's the carefreeness you'd expect from Iggy that makes me want to know more about her and what she's going through. The album seems to be very reflective of who she is, and what she's looking for to become in the future. It's surprisingly sad but also, optimistic. But I would love Iggy to take more care about her bars, as the album went on you could see that she was repeating herself too much with her being independent. She would talk about that on "For Iggy", "Real Life" and "Cazador", sometimes that bar didn't make sense in the context of the song.  Overall, like any debut album, it has its flaws and its shining moments. Iggy seems to know what she's looking for and she's ready to take over the world with whatever she's going to work on in her next studio album. This album has a little bit of everything, you've got sad songs about Iggy's struggles, about being confident and strong, and even some surprises like "Cazador" and "Make it Happen" where Iggy raps in Spanish. Iggy was clearly looking for a sound and a direction for her career on this project and it's clear that whatever she does next, it'll be better. My only advice is to try and obviate the very simplistic lyrics because sometimes it can be seen as "basic" but overall, great job. 

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Tracks to look forward to: Cazador, Sixteen in Miami, Too Late, Pussy, and Your Moment.

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REVIEW #3: 68/100

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Iggy Azalea gives us her first full-length effort yet. How does it stack up? Let’s find out!

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Right off the bat, Iggy opens the album with a minute and a half instrumental that instantly draws you in. I love when artists go to the effort to include introduction tracks to their records. “My Own Thing” excellently sets the stage for what is to come, and it even leaves me wanting more! My only real complaint is that I would have liked to even have more of the song. Perhaps maybe a full-length release could be done in future? Continuing on to track 2, “Sixteen in Miami”, and once again I have to say the production is great here. It sounds very rich and melodic. “Sixteen” continues somewhat of the same narrative we saw in the album’s opening track, and it’s nice to see some continuity there in that regard. I would have liked to see the track have a little more dynamic to it and to see Iggy shake up her rhyming structure in the first verse by breaking away from repeating “follow”, but the bottom line is the song still comes together well. “For Iggy” continues showing Iggy’s self-confidence and IDGAF attitude which she really pulls off well. She comes across very genuine, and it’s refreshing and inspiring to see someone embracing the independent way of releasing. There are some clunky moments in her writing, but the song’s catchy-ness picks up where that falters. The introduction of “Real Life” instantly pulls you in, and I found myself singing along to the track right away. Iggy’s cadence in her lyricism here is solid as well and makes for a great listen. 

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On the next track, “Emotionless”, there is well-timed uptick in the album’s tempo. The chorus is the strong point of this track, and it is what kept me coming back. “And that’s why I’m emotionless / I used to dream about seeing someone / That deserves my love and affection / But that seems impossible for me to achieve”. My one criticism of this track is that the production did feel a little too same-y at times, however it did not deter the song much. Iggy teams up with Maluma for “Cazador”. While there are some nice moments on the track, there are also moments where the song falls flat lyrically throughout the chorus and some parts of the verses. The song, at its core, is good fun though. More attention to perfecting the lyrics could have helped it out more. “Make It Happen” opens with a strong beat over a catchy piano riff. The continuation of the Latin-influenced production featured in the previous track is nice and shows that there was thought and intentionality in the sequencing of the record. Seeing Iggy bringing in more Spanish is also refreshing and welcome. My main criticism with the track is that some of the lyrics feel too simplified, though. “Too Late” continues to showcase Iggy’s honesty in her lyricism, which is something I can appreciate so much. Musically, the song suffers from a similar problem found in the preceding tracks where it feels like the production could go up a few notches throughout. However, it does bring the lyrics more to the forefront.

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“Already” is another good effort. The ballad works really well, and it’s nice seeing Iggy show more of a vulnerable side to her. The album has a clear theme of confidence, but seeing this side to her, a side that admits the hurt she experienced, shows that there is growth happening within her throughout her making of the album.  My only complaint is that the song could have done with some shortening of the repetitious lines. “Wasted” showcases self-destructive tendencies and come across as another genuine message from Iggy. The rhyming scheme and overall structure of the song could have been more solid for me, but there are still great moments lyrically. I would’ve liked to hear some more nuances in the song’s production as well. Iggy teams up with Tinashe for the penultimate track, “Pussy”. The production picks up here and does a great job of rising to meet where Iggy and Tinashe are going with their vocal and overall delivery. The writing did have a lot of clunky moments, but the song is certainly catchy, and it was one of the most fun tracks of the album for sure. The album ends off on “Your Moment”. It’s nice seeing Iggy venture into more of an inspirational and empowerment theme. Overall, I felt her writing was at its strongest here, and I would say this is probably one of the strongest tracks off the album for sure.

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Overall, Amethyst is a solid first outing for Iggy Azalea. The album’s main issues stem from some moments falling short lyrically and production that doesn’t quite go where it needs to all the time. However, it’s obvious where Iggy was going with this record, and it is a damn good effort for a debut record that showcases the great potential for what’s ahead for her. Iggy’s strengths are in her honesty and confidence in her songwriting. It’s clear she is secure in who she is and knows exactly where to take a song. I think we will see her continue to grow even more into her craft as time goes on. 

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1. My Own Thing (Interlude) – 8
2. Sixteen in Miami – 7
3. For Iggy – 7
4. Real Life – 8
5. Emotionless – 8
6. Cazador (feat. Maluma) – 6
7. Make It Happen – 6.5
8. Too Late – 6
9. Already – 7
10. Wasted – 6
11. Pussy – 5
12. Your Moment – 7.5

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