''Alias'' is the second extended play by British rapper and singer

Shygirl Blane Muise (born May 4, 1993), better known by her stage name Shygirl, is an English rapper, DJ, singer, songwriter and co-head/founder of record label and collective Nuxxe. Shygirl's music incorporates elements of hip house, industrial hip-ho ...

. The EP was released on 20 November 2020 through

Because Music Because Music is an independent record label with headquarters in Paris and London. Because Music SAS is the main label, with Because Music Ltd handling the British artist roster. Because Music was founded in 2005 by former president of Virgin F ...

and Shygirl's own label Nuxxe. Following her 2018 debut EP ''Cruel Practice'', ''Alias'' sees Shygirl enlist a diverse array of collaborators, including NUXXE co-founder

Sega Bodega Salvador Navarrete (born 16 February 1992), better known by his stage name Sega Bodega, is an Irish-Scottish music producer, singer, songwriter, DJ and co-head/founder of record label and collective Nuxxe. Sega Bodega is known for his futuristic ...

Gloo Gloo (sometimes stylized in all caps as GLOO) is a British electronic music group composed of musicians Iglooghost, Kai Whiston, and BABii. The trio released their debut album, ''XYZ'' in 2019. History The trio are all musicians and frequent co ...

's Kai Whiston, Oscar Scheller,

Karma Kid Samuel Knowles (born 1 August 1994), known professionally as Karma Kid, is an English record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and ...

, and the late producer Sophie. The EP received critical acclaim upon its release.

Promotion

"Freak" was released as the first single from the on 2 September 2020 alongside a self-directed music video made in collaboration with CGI artist Maurice Anderson and 3D modeller Sy Blake. "Slime" was released as the second single on 7 October 2020. The EP was officially announced and put up for pre-order on 21 October 2020, with the "Slime" lyric video coming out the same day. The lyric video, filmed over

FaceTime FaceTime is a Proprietary software, proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS devic ...

, features appearances from Sophie,

, Arca, Mowalola, and Ms. Carrie Stacks. A full music video for "Slime" came on 10 November 2020. From 25 November to 30 December, lyric videos for the EP's remaining six tracks were released. An official music video for "Tasty" was released on 14 January 2021, featuring Shygirl in a mansion in the English country side inspired by fairytales, Disney Princesses, and ''

Bridgerton ''Bridgerton'' is an American historical- romance streaming television series created by Chris Van Dusen for Netflix. Based on the book series by Julia Quinn, it is Shondaland's first scripted show for Netflix. It revolves around the epony ...

''. The song was officially released as the EP's third single on 9 February 2021, with an EP featuring remixes by

Boys Noize Alexander Ridha (born 22 August 1982), better known by his stage name Boys Noize, is a Berlin-based German-Iraqi electronic music record producer, songwriter, and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he esta ...

and

Lsdxoxo Raushaan Glasgow, better known by his stage name LSDXOXO, is a Berlin-based musician born in Philadelphia who made a name for himself in New York City as a DJ and producer. Glasgow is well-known for his energetic DJ sets, of which manipulate m ...

. "Siren" was released as the fourth single on 16 March 2021, alongside two remixes by Basement Jaxx.

Title

The name ''Alias'' comes from the four

alter egos An alter ego (Latin for "other I", "doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a different ...

that Shygirl adopts throughout the EP: Baddie, Bae, Bovine and Bonk. Bae is a

girl next door The girl next door is a young female stock character who is often used in romantic stories. She is so named because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a mutual friendship that later often ...

blonde "who speaks to hygirl'syouth and the nostalgia of growing up in Southeast London". Baddie has a "bleak, dark sense of humor", and represents a more satirical side of the artist. Bonk is "colorful" and represents the innocent side of Shygirl "that is out for the fun in life." Bovine is aloof, with Shygirl saying "whenever I'm thinking about newer music and trying to discover different sides of myself, Bovine is that side, because she doesn't give away too much just yet." These characters are never named directly in the lyrics, but do appear in the music video for "Slime".

Composition

''Alias'' is a hip hop,

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

, and R&B EP influenced by

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

electroclash Electroclash (also known as synthcore, retro-electro, tech-pop, nouveau disco, and the new new wave) is a genre of music that fuses 1980s electro, new wave and synth-pop with 1990s techno, retro-style electropop and electronic dance music. It ...

, and

Eurobeat Eurobeat refers to two styles of dance music that originated in Europe: one is a British variant of Italian Eurodisco-influencedAng, Ien & Morley, David (2005). "Cultural Studies: Volume 3, Issue 2". ''Routledge''. pgs. 171, 173, 170. . "Eurore ...

. The EP talks about themes of

sex positivity The sex-positive movement is a social and philosophical movement that seeks to change cultural attitudes and norms around sexuality, promoting the recognition of sexuality (in the countless forms of expression) as a natural and healthy part of th ...

, but a darker kind "where the pleasure comes from the danger that bubbles underneath a

deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...

exterior". Shygirl's voice is described as having "a dark-horse quality to it; her voice is buttery soft, but she handles lyrics with venomous precision, knowing when to bite and when to soften." This skill shows itself on "Bawdy" which sees the artist "fluctuate between ghastly clanging and unsettling whisper-crooning" Vocal effects also play a big role in the EP, pitched-up on "Twelve", harmonizing in a "

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (199 ...

" on "Siren", and

Auto-Tune Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. Auto-Tu ...

-d and artificial on "Tasty". Opening track "Twelve" is a

call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

track with "an eerie saw-like

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

that wouldn't score even the most haunting of Jordan Peele's horror moments". The Sophie- produced "Slime" has an "extraterrestrial club

beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

" built over a

trap A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

loop. "Tasty" is a UK garage song described as a " ravey

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

banger" with "bouncing breakbeat production". "Leng" takes influence from grime as Shygirl "spits mile-a-minute bars" over "skittering" beats. EP closer "Siren" is a

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

song that fuses 90s Eurodance,

Europop Europop (also spelled Euro pop) is a style of pop music that originated in Europe during the mid-to-late 1960s and developed to today's form throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with revivals and ...

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

, and the sound of the

PC Music PC Music is a record label and art collective based in London and run by producer A. G. Cook. It was founded in 2013, making its music available on SoundCloud that year. Artists on its roster have included Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, Danny L Harle, ...

label.

Critical reception

''Alias'' received a score of 84 out of 100 based on five reviews from review aggregate site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "universal acclaim". Writing for ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', Ben Jolley called the project "a

maximalist In the arts, maximalism, a reaction against minimalism, is an aesthetic of excess. The philosophy can be summarized as "more is more", contrasting with the minimalist motto "less is more". Literature The term ''maximalism'' is sometimes associ ...

joyride that sounds like it's been beamed in from the cyber-rave dancefloors of 2080" and "''Alias'' proves that Shygirl is in full control of her artistic vision no matter the scale." Ashley Bardhan of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' praised the EP for its

escapism Escapism is mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment. Escapism may be used to occupy one's self away from persistent feelings of depression or gener ...

admist the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, saying "In a year of no touching, these euphoric party moments feel far away, but Shygirl's endearing

hedonism Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...

brings that sweaty room a bit closer. ''Alias'' is a glittering light, a portal into the future and everything you might do." Mick Jacobs wrote for ''Spectrum Culture'', "Chock full of attitude, fun and menace, Shygirl's latest establishes a new, larger-than-life persona in addition to her trademark, detached cold-as-ice clubgirl."

Track listing

Notes *All track titles stylised in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

References

{{reflist 2020 EPs Albums produced by Sega Bodega Albums produced by Sophie (musician) Shygirl albums Because Music albums Contemporary R&B EPs Eurodance EPs Hip hop EPs Industrial EPs Pop music EPs