Pixey - Million Dollar Baby Review

Pixey raises the bar in thoughtful, wistful and nostalgic debut.

Pixey’s Man Power, marches into the album with a melodic and hypnotic expectation raising first track.  Layered with subtle sweet vocals and mashed together with deep synths, complimenting the backing of distorted guitar: you can’t help but get up and walk the line, break the bar and move.  Instrumentally reminiscent of early 00’s themes evoked by Blur, this first piece brings that feeling to the present in full-force.

Chased by the title track Million Dollar Baby, every element of the piece felt deeply nostalgic to the sort of feeling one could get sitting in the back of a hot car with the windows down, beach shimmering not too far away, sunscreen smelling and road trip singing.  Sounding utterly ecstatic to be calling out, Pixey encapsulates both the sentimental era and character of a track like Starships by Nicki Minaj from a time that I am sure many long to return to, but builds upon that with thoughtful yet euphoric lyricism.  These feelings are extended further and pressed on in The Thrill Of It, a dewy-eyed and wistful track that sings of living without limits in the way that all wished to do in adolescence.  Pixey, too, waxes about missing those days, just a little bit, all whilst acknowledging that to live in a state as raw as that, you’d have to get sick, just for the thrill of it, just to feel something.

Without a doubt a stand-out track on this release, Best Friend features a phenomenal instrumental backing-track with what sounds almost like a french-horn.  This in conjunction with, true to the name, pixie-like vocals that come through as otherworldly, magical, enchanting.  More than a love note, from the snare to the kindness with which every word is sung: the whole song is a delight throughout.  Comparable in method of mixing to TV GIRL by way of the energy every note evokes, Pixey in this entry alone compels and thrills.

A feel good album utterly, Bring Back The Beat is supersonic in rhythm and vim.  Paired with the Oxygen, tones of real longing come in, but keeping with the tempo, propel a real craving and eagerness for desire that this collection understands truly.  The whole album is simple in its message, but incredibly effective.

The final track The War In My Mind is the swan-song and culmination of the sentiment built throughout Pixey’s debut.  It reckons with whether they could be worthy of an imagined heaven, created by their own mind.  It reconciles the want to toughen yourself, making yourself a machine, whilst simultaneously needing and looking for someone to lean on.  The duality in the lyricism is represented through the album by way of the difference between their instrumental flair and the actual content and wording.  Despite this separation, both elements harmonise with each other in an approach and fashion that could only be accomplished by a true lover of not just their scene, but of all music.

Pixey’s debut UK headline tour begins in September, and if it conjures half of the feeling this album bring to mind: it’ll be a must watch.