Album review: Rico Nasty – LETHAL

Rico Nasty wants to do, and be, everything. She’s not so much a chameleon as she is a perpetual juggler of sounds and ideas, picking them up and dropping them again with a giddy glee. This has always been a central tenet of her artistry, but on album three, her quirky polystylism is more varied – and chaotic - than ever.

LETHAL is a canvas of clashing colours, initially dominated by the clicks and thuds of a drum machine and myriad synths. It may be versatile, but Rico’s constant fiddling of the dial means there’s something scatterbrained about this album.

Undeniably, however, there are great moments. The sassy trap-rock of TEETHSUCKER (YEA3X) demonstrates the best of her sharp, raspy flow and brass-knuckled, even funny putdowns – ‘I’m tryna pop out like a titty,’ is certainly a howler. Elsewhere, the dreamy BUTTERFLY KISSES and the pitch-black grit of GRAVE offer some intriguing experiments in tone, but generally, she is stronger at the sour than the sweet. The caramel-sticky ON THE LOW is a cloying and slightly cringeworthy ode to sex and love, while the hyperpop-tinged, baby-voiced PINK comes off as a little irritating.

In LETHAL’s more guitar-driven middle third, things get rather interesting. It’s where the most new ground is broken, and within that, Rico’s unearthed a side that perhaps suits her better than she realises. SMOKE BREAK’s bratty, harsh take on punk is a blast of quickfire fun, while CRASH sounds like a forgotten gem of the early 2020s pop-punk revival. Even when she channels the spirit of rock into her trap-driven output, it’s just as successful, such as on the discordant and brilliantly assured SON OF A GUN.

Perhaps mastering a sense of duality is what Rico Nasty is gunning for – harsh and soft, or trap and rock. At the same time, there’s not quite enough sense of focus to suggest that’s the case. Should she find that, or find a way to blur all these sounds into something cohesive and singular, she could be unstoppable.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Ashnikko, 100 gecs, Sophie Powers

LETHAL is out now via Fueled By Ramen