Rebecca Black
Salvation
SELF-RELEASED
ABOVE THE CURRENT
Rebecca Black’s ascent into the pop-culture zeitgeist is not one of envy. It’s now been 14 years since the infamous “Friday” broke the internet, and while the old adage mandates that all publicity is good publicity, having the BBC call your debut single the “worst song ever” as a 13 year old is not the way I’d want to start my budding music career. If there was any silver lining to Black’s newfound infamy, it’s that stardom could really only go up from there—and up it certainly has gone. In the midst of a creative renaissance that began with 2021’s self-released Rebecca Black Was Here EP, the Orange County native has evolved from an internet laughing stock to an independent hyperpop powerhouse.
An intoxicating blend of Y2K aesthetics and bubblegum pop, Black’s second album Salvation is a celebration of her musical renaissance. The project opens with a driver’s seat romp before Black smugly sings that “You think I’m on fire but the fire feels like paradise,” blowing a kiss to anyone who thinks their words could hurt her. In case we didn’t get the hint, she doubles down on her liberation in the chorus, crowning herself savior before warning that “It hurts to hate me / Swear you’re only poisoning yourself.” The opener also gives Black space to celebrate her queerness and reject anyone’s opinion of how she should love. Religious underpinnings make the celebration particularly resonant, giving Black the feeling that she is, as she notes in an interview with NME, “taking back power” over her sexuality. True self-confidence on every level is the ultimate salvation; as someone who had hate comments read to her by an ABC news anchor on live TV as a middle-schooler, Black knows her confidence can’t be touched now.
The high octane portions of Salvation are best described as oscillating between peak Katy Perry Millennial pop and turn-of-the-decade Charli XCX hyperpop. Black—whose resume includes a cameo in the “Last Friday Night” video and a long-standing friendship with Dorian Electra—is uniquely positioned for this sort of culture clash, and she doesn’t disappoint. The chorus of the techno-infused “Trust!” could’ve been pulled from a slew of Lady Gaga albums, colored by an it-girl factor that only Black and her bedazzled chainsaw aesthetic can drive home. “Sugar Water Cyanide” combines Stefani-esque playground playfulness with sickly sweet percussion to produce what Black claimed on TikTok as “the cuntiest song of her career.” As the distortion picks up and the bass pumps harder, she tosses her bejeweled gun into the microwave—which makes no sense but feels right, you know? It’s all the things great club music should be: fun, reckless, and horny.
Maintaining the electronic influence, but toning down the yassified weaponry, Black uses the back half of the album to distill the emotional maturity she’s had to undergo over the past 14 years. “American Doll” satirizes the brutal realities of being a young woman in the music industry, where autonomy is scarce and the forceful ideal of “the best girls” are those who, as Black croons, “are made up of grace and apologies.” Later on, “Tears in My Pocket” toes the line of appropriate and fetishistic protective love when your partner is vulnerable. “Let me get my hands on your pain / I can be the novocaine,” Black sings, eager to feel the high of being the numbing agent. The lust to extinguish her partner’s pain is buoyed by intermittent synths and thundering drums, driving home the novocaine thrill.
Coming back from the most disliked video in YouTube history at the time of its release is a tall, tall task. With Salvation, Black has turned the moment into a defiant embrace of herself, showing the world that she is the pop star she knew she’d be back in 2011 after all. Electronic dance music has seen an unexpected comeback in the mainstream pop scene, from 2024’s Brat summer to Lady Gaga’s stunning performance of “Abracadabra” on SNL last weekend. Salvation cements Rebecca Black’s place in that history, as well as her bid for Gen-Z’s greatest comeback story.
