BARBIE: THE ALBUM
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film is in style, a buffet table of brightly-coloured confectionaries on a sparkly, bubble-gum pink tablecloth, and in story, a journey towards finding and empowering one’s true self and becoming at peace with uncertainty, moments of defeat, and things in life just outside of one’s power to control.
As the score for the flip-through of magazine ads for vintage Barbie dolls that the credits roll next to, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua’s ‘Barbie World’ is the last musical mouthful a Barbie audience member is treated to; a bedazzled, hot pink trap number about friendship and self-confidence, ‘Barbie World’ is an encapsulation of the 2020s makeover of McBling.
Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance The Night’ soundtracks the disco bash Margot Robbie’s Barbie throws before everything for her and for Barbie Land flips upside-down, and the promotional trailers released for the film: saturated with electronic beats, a smooth bass riff, violin bars, hand claps, and rays of sparkles, the retro pop single was designed for the hottest Malibu nightclubs of the 1980s and today. After journeying to and escaping from the Real World, deprogramming the Barbies of Barbie World out of hypnosis by the Kens, saving Barbie Land from turning into Ken World forever, and speaking with Barbie creator Ruth Handler (played by Rhea Perlman) about the joys and tragedies of being human, Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ plays as a supercut of decades of girls’ memories plays in Barbie’s mind. Eilish’s haunting lullaby of a piano ballad captures Barbie’s unsure but hopeful emotional state, the single’s premise of falling out of grace as an ideal reflecting the life of the young female popstar alike the Barbie protagonist.
Charli XCX’s signature pink-chrome hyper-pop has made Charlotte Aitchison into the rave-Barbie of the indie-pop world, with 2017’s Pop 2 and 2019’s Charli in particular, marrying the pink bubble-gum femme of the Barbie brand with the glittery grime of club culture: her scintillating, light-streaking ‘Speed Drive’ is the perfect needle-drop for the film’s getaway sequence.
Lizzo’s warm, upbeat pop sound fits the positive, trouble-free vibe of the Barbie Land that opens the film and her self-reflexive and comedic lyrical style matches the winking-style of the film’s script – the singer’s breezy, 1960s girl group-inspired ‘Pink’ is a cutesy and clever theme song for Barbie in the tradition of Frankie Valli’s ‘Grease’ for 1978’s Grease. KAROL G and Aldo Ranks’ ‘WATATI’ is a rum-kissed tropical twist on Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’: with a satiny swinging rhythm, strong and vibrant drumming, cinnamon-y female vocals from KAROL G, a splashing rap verse from Ranks and flirtatious, foxy lyrics, the number is a firecracker that the Barbies and Kens of Barbie Land would dance to under the moonlight and beside the waves at a summer blowout on the beach.
Ryan Gosling’s Ken’s rock-operatic power ballad, part quiet confession of feelings of under-appreciation and disempowerment and part rallying call for all of the Kens to discover their true selves, masterfully transitions from heartfelt vocals and piano keys, to crackling-thunder electric guitars and rock drumming, to 1980s cyber-sounding electric keys and pop guitar-playing, and back again.
Sam Smith’s flashy, sleazy, fist-pumping ‘Man I Am’ manages to walk the line between satirising symbols of hyper-masculinity that are weaponised against those that are assigned-male-at-birth and do not fit comfortably into traditional masculinity, and acknowledging the struggles of boys and men in being accepted by the patriarchal world that we all belong to. Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker rhinestones the bursting hypnotics of his signature sound on ‘Journey To The Real World’ by swapping out any oozing production and petrifying sounds for twinkling-star piano keys, whimsical ripples like pillows of clouds, and beams of reverberation like rainbows, and Khalid combines the light, bouncy melodies of popular 2000s male R&B musicians with the smooth, honeyed vocal stylings and rich piano keys and bass lines of sultry 1990s hip-hop ballads on ‘Silver Platter’ that narrates Ken’s wishes to love Barbie.
On ‘Angel’ PinkPantheress’ frosting-sweet voice and story of innocent teenage heartbreak teleports the listener into a pastel suburban bedroom during the decade of bobby socks, button-up knit sweaters, and hours-long talks on the home’s telephone, adding a nostalgic dash of the simple romance of Barbie’s early days to the film’s soundtrack.
Amp-blowing guitars, mothwing-flapping drumming, and slithering and striking vocals, GAYLE’s ‘butterflies’ is a brass-knuckled, tiara-wearing, riot grrrl anthem that spits in the face of the commands, “Smile,” “Sit still,” and “Be a good girl,” and Ava Max blends the tough-as-nails feminist lyricism of Joan Jett with the multicolours of synthetic sounds and pulsing electronic beats of campy, glistening-with-sweat Europop on the opal sugar-coated and sword-wielding ‘Choose Your Fighter’.
‘Barbie Dreams’ by FIFTY FIFTY and Kaliii is the ribbon tied around Barbie The Album – a tutti-frutti techno-pop number with layers of bright, sugary electronic sounds that celebrates living a life of luxuries a Barbie has purchased themselves with the money they have made themselves and dancing in the bright lights and singing in the car with the top-down with girlfriends.
Cat Joy
★★★★★