Elliot Lee don't mess with no "Mess Boy"

One of the most original young voices in pop music today just dropped an impressive new track that shows just how multidimensional and talented an artist she really is. I'm talking Brooklyn based musician Elliot Lee, the commander in chief for a legion of devoted fans known as "The Bubble Gum Army" and whose sonic landscape is a candy-colored wonderland where Dark-pop is woven into Electronic rock to form something innovative and unique, a space where vulnerability gains a strong bitting edge and a killer attitude.

Elliot's newest song is a huge surprise for me, but one that makes sense in retrospect. "Mess Boy" takes elements from her Dark-Pop roots stripped to the bare bones into a minimalistic but ultimately dynamic and edgy beat, and where a lot of the electro fluff would have been, she replaces it instead with a (warranted) aggressive hip-hop flow set to lyrics that pull no punches.

In "Mess Boy", Elliot takes a look back at an experience in life where a former colleague put her in an inappropriate situation where he used bullying and manipulation, taking advantage of a power imbalance to control her. This track turns things around by allowing Elliot to confront the past and turn the experience into a self-empowering anthem. The Animated music video delves even deeper into this subject and broadens the themes by presenting us with a young woman (who looks an awful lot like her) being harassed on the subway by a shadowy figure in a creepy and surreal -but still all-too-real way-

One of the key features in the track is of course Elliot's Vocals, particularly in her rapping, a side of her that we're not all that familiar with,-and one that doesn't fail to impress- as the raw, focused anger of her flow gives a nice gritty edge to her otherwise better-known manic pixie energy. These amazing vocals get all of the protagonism thanks to the relatively minimalistic sound, allowing us to take a good clean look at the hard-hitting message she wishes to get across, however, the track doesn't sacrifice any catchiness at all, especially with that powerful chorus that becomes real earworm in no time.

This is an extremely strong outing by Elliot, a fresh take on her own -evolving- sound, and a testament to the wide range of things she can comfortably accomplish musically, I can't imagine the Bubblegum army being anything other than extremely pleased with this surprising new track, and I suspect they'll be experiencing a huge swell in their ranks very soon.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Samuel Aponte is Venezuelan-born raised and based. 

I joined Rival Magazine after a few years of doing PR work for independent musicians of all stripes; understanding their struggles to be heard in a sea of constant  ADHD noise and paywalled access to platforms, I now bring a willingness to always appreciate and encourage the effort and creativity that artists put into their work . Can also find some of my writings on LADYGUNN and We Found New Music.