Those out of the pop culture loop may be surprised to see the name Addison Rae published in our music section, given her rise to fame as an influencer on social media platform TikTok. Her presence dominated the online world during the Covid-19 pandemic, amassing over 5.2 billion likes and 88 million followers on the social media platform in her time as a star. Rae always stood out amongst the crowd of dancers and models that were her peers on the platform, becoming known for her unique personality and outstandish fashion choices. Her musical debut came swiftly in 2021 with ‘Obsessed’, a track which, while successful, Rae has since stated she didn’t truly”connect with.
The birth of the pop star she is today was conceived in 2022, when a number of leaked demos from Rae’s conceptional debut album surfaced online. Fans drew to the tracks like a moth to a flame, with masses of people praising their catchy, pure pop vibe and stellar lyrics. Tracks like ‘I Got It Bad’ and her rendition of scrapped Lady Gaga track ‘Nothing On (But The Radio)’ received unprecedented praise, with the leaks catching the attention of none other than Charli xcx.
Rae has been open about her belief that Charli’s request to add a verse to ‘2 die 4’ was the turning point for her career: no longer did she consider the tracks done and dusted, but she instead decided to publish them officially in her debut EP AR in a move that went on to be wholly career-defining. The EP propelled Rae into the music world, where she has firmly remained since. She linked up again with Charli on the remix of BRAT‘s lead single ‘Von Dutch’, which itself had a viral moment on her once-defining platform TikTok.
It was after the release of the ‘Von Dutch’ remix that fans began to wonder what would come next for the internet star turned music phenomenon. Rae’s debut EP could have been seen as stemming from necessity, with the artist herself doing little to reveal whether or not she’d be sticking around in the music sphere. Speculation came to an end last June, when the star teased her musical comeback via a fifteen-second snippet of what would go on to be ‘Aquamarine’.
Fast-forward to August, and the world was introduced to Addison lead single ‘Diet Pepsi’: the track proved to be a slow-burn hit, amassing over 400 million streams on Spotify to date. It was also her first chart success, becoming a UK top ten single and appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 54, and was praised by critics for its euphoric melodies and ear-infesting chorus. Since then, Rae has released four further singles in anticipation of the album’s release. Each one had its own huge moment, with ‘Headphones On’ and ‘Fame is a Gun’ also breaking the charts, and each droplet soothed her fanbase’s roaring appetite for the album, but did little to tame it. After months of waiting, Addison was released via Columbia Records on the 6th of June.
Opening track ‘New York’ does more than set the pace for the album, it sets the tone of the world’s perception of Addison Rae. From the offset, it’s obvious that listeners are being spoken to by a person so wildly in touch with their creativity that inspiration flows right through them; Rae lives life to the full. She manages to bottle up every aspect of driving through the streets of NYC late at night and morph it into the soundwaves of the track in sheer euphoria. The track blends swimmingly into ‘Diet Pepsi’, which soothes the listener after the bounds of energy provided by the prior track. Still, almost a year after release, the track sounds fresh.
Listeners are then propelled back into Rae’s mind with following track ‘Money is Everything’, in which the star breaks down the beauty of her life and addresses fan concerns that her new image is in any way manufactured or fabricated with one simple lyric, “the girl I used to be is still the girl inside of me”. Throughout the album, it’s easy to realise that this is always who Rae was destined to be: her initial appearance and presence was, in fact, the manufactured version of herself.
The album melts away into the night through following track ‘Aquamarine’ and interlude ‘Lost & Found’, right into what is easily one of the album’s highlights, ‘High Fashion’. By opening with the question “have you ever dreamt of being seen?”, Rae puts into song emotions that are, for most, simply too hard to fathom, encouraging her listeners to resonate with every element of the track. The depth in the line “wanting something more than just a hit” really brings home the points she makes, reflecting on longing for a place or person to belong to that isn’t short-lived.
Following tracks ‘Summer Forever’ and ‘In The Rain’ aren’t exactly stand out tracks compared to the high quality singles that precede them, but they get close to perfection nevertheless. They do exactly what they’re meant to do: keep listeners floating along the river of pure joy that Rae has created in the sound of her songs. The remaining tracks blend into one larger piece, flowing effortlessly. Wrapping up with ‘Headphones On’, Rae leaves her listeners desperate for another hit. At just 38 minutes long, Addison feels as though it should go on for hours, and it’s safe to say that fans would have been delighted to have seen this be a twenty-track project.
Addison is an album for the lovers without a lover; perhaps, even, the lovers whose lover is themself. Rae showcases a level of personal fulfilment and self-introspection that is simply astounding for a 24-year-old, let alone someone once known solely for dance routines on social media. To provide her audience with digestible emotions at this level at her age is something that can only really be paralleled to the likes of Madonna with Bedtime Stories, Fiona Apple with Tidal and Lorde with Pure Heroine, all widely respected albums for their ability to condense the complexity of human emotion down into a three-minute audio file, as is showcased by Rae on this debut.
Promotional material for this project dubbed it as the “first and last album” by Addison Rae – as after this project, she’s ditching the Rae and going solely by her first name. This seems to be the sign on the cheque for her one way ticket to superstardom – the final process in her rebrand, meaning Addison is at the start of a very lengthy and prosperous career.
