Dirty Blonde (LP) - Sage Suede (EDM) Sensitive readers beware, because like Sage Suede, we’re not going to mince words on this. On the “Dirty Blonde” LP, Sage is down to fuck, and there’s absolutely no innuendo to it. So if you’re up for an (audial) orgy, dig in below.
Sage’s press release is a blunt as their album. According to Sage, they wrote the album as a journey through space and time and “personally connected with hot women around the world to get their attention for duets.” The goal was to make the listener think about fashion, romance and gender. For us, however, what it made us think about is getting railed on a gas station bathroom floor by demonic clowns. You read that right.
We can best define the genre of “Dirty Blonde” as avant garde/abstract EDM—because we’re not sure ‘acid trip’ is a genre. The instrumentation throughout is structured fairly traditionally, with steady BPMs, percussion loops and heavy pads, sticking mostly to EDM but occasionally incorporating some modern hiphop trends. But in addition to a few interesting instrumental punches, it’s the vocals that make the album other worldy. First, it’s heavily layered with both male and female vocals on top of each other, and then on top of that some robotic layers and demonic distortions, and that is a consistent production for all of the tracks. This is a homegrown effect, Sage having edited the vocals to intentionally sound crazy (note, “The Best Revenge” has over 30 vocal layers). Those layers are often disjointed, creating an interesting delay effect, that abandons clarity for the feelings they are meant to invoke in the listener. Adding to the abstract, Sage also regularly syncopates or abandons the rhythm of the instrumental altogether, at times veering more into spoken word than lyrical verse. The result is a sound that feels like a demonic possession delivering an incantation. It’s certainly not like anything we’ve ever heard before. It’s some final act of Requiem for a Dream shit.
Other than developing a truly original sound, we also commend Sage Suede for making each track entirely unique, despite the carrythrough of their one of a kind vocal production. By sticking to the unconventional choice of production, it would be very easy to fall into the trap of each song sounding too similar, but Sage Suede avoids that completely and delivers 13 tracks each with entirely their own identity.
As for the lyrical content itself, it’s probably the most explicit record we’ve ever heard. It’s not just about sex, it’s about dirty sex. Grimey and at times bordering on grotesque. On “Corn Chip Thot” specifically, the use of churros and crisco as sexual imagery might be overwhelming for some listeners. But we are fairly confident Sage Suede has fully intended on shock value and they have certainly achieved that. This album would make your grandmother spontaneously combust.
Our favorite track is “The Best Revenge”, a demented disco number that alternates the vocal layering to allow the male and female vocals to each come to the forefront and take some time in the spotlight. “Broment” is also a bop, sticking to a more conventional lyrical structure. It feels like the warped cousin of the Ying Yang Twinz’s “Whisper Song”, and the synth key lead is very catchy. We also want to draw attention to “Work From Hoe”, on which Sage tells the chick banging on his door for dick she should calm down and he’ll be back tomorrow. The eastern influences on the instrumental remind us of Timbaland’s ventures into that sound around the time of “Indian Flute” and Truth Hurts’ “Addicted”. We think these tracks are the best entry point.
All in all, we are pretty amazed by the originality of this record, we have truly never heard anything like it. And so if your sex dungeon or Eyes Wide Shut party needs a soundtrack—we think ”Dirty Blonde” is a sure bet.