Biig Piig - Bubblegum Review
Biig Piig is one of the freshest Éire acts around, delivering liquid smooth drum and bass across her debut mixtape Bubblegum.
Biig Pigg aka Jessica Smyth has been making music (and a name for herself) since 2017. She’s part of the NiNE8 collective alongside fellow artists like Lava La Rue, signed with RCA Records in 2019, and is embarking on a sold out UK tour in March, to name just a few milestones.
Her latest release Bubblegum is in heavy rotation for me. I first heard Biig Piig back in 2020 on ‘Switch’, which was aptly titled as it marked the start of her foray into D&B-infused pop and away from lo-fi R&B. Bubblegum is the culmination of a slew of single releases and I’ve been waiting on its arrival with bated breath.
So without further ado, here’s a track-by-track rundown of Bubblegum. In short, this mixtape is stellar and I’d urge anyone to give it a spin.
The record opens with ‘Only One’, a silky love song punctuated by synth that introduces listeners both new and old to Smyth’s dreamy voice. If you’re a fan of chilled out tunes, it’s apparent from the opener that you’ll enjoy Bubblegum. Similarly, ‘Liquorice’ cements the zen vibe as Smyth sweetly serenades her lover, promising “I’ll always be here, you’ll always be safe” to the song’s subject.
‘Kerosene’, on the flipside, ignites sexual desire woven amongst metaphors of fuel and fire. Sonically, this track is more uptempo and introduces more high-key electronic elements. We continue to pick up the pace as we progress through the mixtape, though ‘This Is What They Meant’ is more buoyant and a real earworm, might I add. This track is definitely a standout for me.
‘Ghosting’ invites a little melancholy onto the record, reminiscent of the sound of Biig Piig’s moody 2021 EP The Sky Is Bleeding. Smyth blends English and Spanish verses crafted around a chorus that lyrically fixates on the idea of escapism and reinvention. Penultimate track ‘Picking Up’ is a high-octane collaboration with genre-defying artist Deb Never, where the two explore acting as agents of chaos, chasing highs over a 3-minute runtime of heavier D&B.
Finally, ‘In The Dark’ circles back to the more subdued sound we experienced earlier in the EP, with bonus groovy guitar riffs to round off a short but sweet mixtape. All in all, the record is cohesive without being repetitive, though I do think a full-length album could err into that territory. I’ll be keeping an eye on Biig Piig this year and hope to see some more experimental sounds from her on future releases.