Album review by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Singer, songwriter and actor: Grace VanderWaal has turned 21 years old and she is flipping the page and regaining control of the narrative of her life especially her childhood as a Childstar. She is dishing the dirt before she moves on with her life to bigger, better and different experiences. Grace VanderWaal was a young singer songwriter, who rose to world-wide fame at the tender age of 12 years old when she won America’s Got Talent, and now that she has reached the age of majority: she’s exposing all her feelings about it on this second album.
The singles ‘Proud’, ‘Babydoll’ (feat. Aliyah’s Interlude), ‘What’s Left of Me’ and ‘Call It What You Want’ have all been released over the last few months and these songs offer a glimpse into the board themes embodied in Childstar from Grace VanderWaal’s perspective. Those themes are the corrosive nature of celebrity and its false promise of happiness. The disillusionment with the spotlight that is veiled in imagery of religious, grief, death and addiction metaphors. This might sound grime but it isn’t. It’s refreshing to hear such honesty born from lived experience.
The album opens with ‘Proud’ where Grace VanderWaal’s sings about being a child star craving validation from others. It is obvious that the song writing process has provided catharsis for her and is a means of processing those early childhood amazing and traumatic experiences: “Humble child”, “small”, “Remember gratitude”, “never ask for nothing”, “Ground yourself, remember your place” and “Apologize, better self-correct”. The vision of being a child in this adult world of celebrity and fakery is revealing. The tolling of the bell in ‘Brand New’ and its demand to reinvent oneself away from the stake and the grave that she was put through shows a desire for life. The acoustic guitar of ‘Homesick’ is a sad song of a young woman haunted by her childhood, but the promise of a new day is on the way.
The three outstanding commercially appealing songs are the break-up ‘What’s Left Of Me’ with that beautiful haunting chorus. ‘Call It What You Want’ which is an uncompromising love song of the child grown up. And, it is followed by ‘Babydoll’ which is an up-tempo song about the joy of self-possession carried by fearless beat, searing violins and moody synths. The song was co-written by Tiffany Stringer, who I adore as she is an amazing song writer with a wicked sense of humour and it shows in this track.
What I really like about this album is the cynicism within Childstar which shows the world that Grace VanderWaal inhabited with people motivated purely by self-interest. Grace VanderWaal expresses in her song writing the brutality of growing up under the surveillance of the public eye.
The nine-song album can be summed up in the best song on Childstar, the fantastic ‘Behavioural Problems’ with its gentle discordant synth chords that sounds like an open wound in Grace VanderWaal’s soul. And in the last song ‘Fade’, where she ‘celebrates her pain’. That is what growing up and moving on to reclaim yourself is all about: owning what happened, knowing it, understanding it and then carrying it as a part of your life story – all done within the lyricism of the songs.
Childstar is a raw and compelling listen wrapped up in engaging melodies and whip-smart lyrics that sting your conscience and make you rethink the ‘Beg For It’ lifestyle.
