Amanda Blank
I Love You
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Label: Downtown
In 2009, it really shouldn't be noteworthy for a female performer to be sexually confident and opinionated. Hell, it shouldn't have been noteworthy when Madonna made that her modus operandi in the mid '80s. Amanda Blank seems more than slightly aware of this on her debut I Love You, taking Madonna's character even further and crafting a sexual identity for the 21st century. There is of course a long history of exaggeration in pop culture, particularly where identity is concerned, but for Amanda Blank it goes a bit beyond that, rooted as she is in the hip-hop aesthetic, a world that has long nurtured sexual swagger as a badge of honor amongst its men. To that end, portions of Blank's character rely on alterations of stereotypically male-driven traits in her delivery, from "Might Like You Better" and its feminine reversal of men's endowment bragging with "wanna hold you/ Get to know you/ Show you what I got in my sweater, baby," to the assault on a particular realm of masculinity that is "DJ." Blank is well-educated in what being male means in the hip-hop world, and by default, how that contrasts with the idea of what being female means in that same world; rather than accept the traditional female role of "bitch" or take on the guise of just "one of the guys," Blank creates a female identity that revolts against both concepts.
The women in the songs on I Love You are in charge of their pleasure and their roles, unwilling to saddle themselves with men who can't rise to the task, as in "Big Heavy" or jealous, domineering men like the one detailed in "DJ." Blank's characters haven't become sexually aware in order to fit in with the men of their world, they've become aware in order to understand and reign in their pleasure. Unlike hip-hop's men, the female sexuality present on I Love You is devoted to pleasure rather than destruction or domination. Further, the men the women take home aren't meant to be notches on a bedpost, rather than steps towards further awareness; though they can offer quick pleasures, Blank is quick to point out that ultimately, she and her characters "need love."
What this means is that I Love You isn't a work that treats sex as a perverted joke, as Peaches does, or as a way of controlling others, as Madonna and others have, but instead a way of life that has a place but is not the be all and end all of connections between people. This allows Blank to detail her escapades and talents as a way of embracing this particular element of herself, but by no means is she defined by how many "bitches" she's bedded or how big her piece is. Blank simply doesn't recognize feminine sexuality as cultural boogieman, nor portrays in her songs sexually confident women seen as overtly masculine, suffering from misplaced penis envy. It helps that Blank is perfectly aware of her predecessors, whether it's the way "A Love Song" recalls Salt-n-Peppa or her dead-on Deborah Harry at the climax of "Big Heavy," utilizing both the ideas and methods of idols past and present.
Of course, if ideas were the only thing I Love You had, it wouldn't even be worth noting except as an anthropological footnote. The fact of the matter is that as well as bringing a refreshing perspective, I Love You is one of the better pop albums in years. The all-star production team of Diplo, Switch and XXXChange is peerless, making for songs that would get any crowd moving, regardless of who was singing. Early on, "Something Bigger, Something Better" makes it clear that I Love You intends to alter as many sonic traits as it does sexual ones, Switch crafting a track that sounds like the next step up in evolution from "Paper Planes," marching beat set against reloading guns and enough industrial clatter to make Portishead proud. Blank sounds especially menacing on the track, demonstrating that in terms of control and range she's got more to offer than M.I.A., her vocals positively dripping with hunger. On "Make-Up," she even comes across as some forgotten New Wave idol against a beat that sounds like having sex with a fax machine.
Arguably, though, the album's strongest moment is also its simplest, "A Love Song," which earlier debuted on Santigold and Diplo's first mixtape. With its LL Cool J sample and Santigold guest hook, "A Love Song" is a perfect merger of old school bubble gum and modern pop. Similarly, first single "Might Like You Better" is essentially an update of a fluke hit from Romeo Void, a group fronted by another sexually confident woman who may have been too much, too soon for the previous generation. Blank keeps the song's chorus and makes things more obvious for the generation that loves detail- a Twitter-worthy detail of a hookup, in a way. XXXChange coats the track in his patented vocal manipulations, still as exciting as they were three years ago on Spank Rock's debut, robotic and sexy at once.
I Love You's flaw is also one of its biggest strengths: every track sounds like a ready-made single, capable of standing on its own outside of the album format. Whether this was a conscious decision for the iPod world or just a happy accident isn't clear but it's worth noting that several of the tracks, most notably "A Love Song," have been available elsewhere for some time. I Love You's short attention span perhaps keeps the album from being a classic and unfortunately, may lead some to just treat it as a danceable throwaway without giving it the attention it deserves. But the truth is that I Love You is a remarkable debut by someone capable of radically altering the pop landscape--confident, smart, sexy and fun, Blank knows what she wants and she knows how to get it.
by Morgan Davis