Recommended tracks: “Nobody’s Girl,” “Beyond the Bend,” “Glitter”
Artists you may like: Blusher, Hayley Kiyoko, Rebecca Black
“Pop is a woman’s joy. Pop is the wrath of it, too because pop is divinely feminine. Pop is the practice of presence, to flail your limbs in the dark and grasp for a melody so impossibly stupid and simple that it actually feels new.
Pop is an attempt to be so honest that it might actually transcend the (valid) fears of cliche and strike a chord. Pop is sincerity. Pop is to sing and work in the system while criticizing the fuck out of it. Pop is the ability to make a melody so catchy that it connects a libertarian protrump anti trans woman named Susan in the Walmart to Eli on the radio. Pop is the downfall of an idealist, who believes that peace is possible for humanity with reparations and reform before everything has to collapse, an incredibly naive yet heart wrenching dream. Pop is a girl’s imagination.”
Eli shared the above quote via Instagram on the release day of Stage Girl (Not A Dream Anymore), the deluxe version of her debut album Stage Girl, an instant pop bible of mine from the first listen and hopefully a future one for many more girls, gays, and theys.
Continuing the success of the Pitchfork-approved single “Glitter” and her Zara Larsson collab, Stage Girl (Not A Dream Anymore) further solidifies Eli as one of pop’s most exciting new voices (and I don’t mean this lightly as a full-time pop listener).
The seven new tracks not only highlight Eli’s insane vocal runs, lyrical wit, and bubblegum pop whimsy, but also her experimental daringness as she dips into a more slow-paced, pop-ballad sound and even straight-up R&B on tracks like “Nobody’s Girl,” “F**k the DJ,” and “Love U Thru the Dj” featuring Ayleen Valentine.
“Beyond the Bend” is such an intelligent, moving commentary on survival in pop and in life that it brought tears to my eyes. It serves as the sonic and lyrical sequel of Stage Girl’s “Sunny” — a vulnerable interlude about Eli’s experience of her dad’s transphobia, which he does not know how to grapple with himself other than “blaming it on a generation.”
The stage where he kicked her down in “Sunny” now becomes the stage upon which her music speaks in “Beyond the Bend”: “I am not afraid ’cause girls like me don’t get to be / Cause when the show is over, there’s still a stage beneath my feet.” Eli relates this absurdity of transphobia, of pure hatred for love, to the irony of music industry people who claim to be “anti-establishment but dripped in Saint Laurent.” “Tell me which one of us working in this industry / Tell me which one of us actually been behind the scenes / Tell me which one of us living parasocially / Tell me if the internet is actually a reality,” she asks.
Such cultural sharpness also shines through Eli’s humour. Nothing made me cackle like when I heard the ad-libs in the bridge of “Glitter”: “He doesn’t even have a job / I mean, we don’t have jobs either but like / He’s horrible.” She is your wiser big sister and your equally delusional best friend, your favorite pop star’s favorite pop star, and your fellow fangirl. She may have signed a record deal, but she’ll still be sub-tweeting Brandon Creed, maybe “twirling in the yard like it’s MSG” but it’s just her back garden.
One thing about Eli is that she is not afraid to name-drop. This goes for her infamous create-mode Instagram stories calling KATSEYE Dadaism to singing about getting drunk with Tate McRae, sitting on the curb with Addison Rae, and being Ariana’s dream girl on “F**k the DJ.” Stage Girl (Not A Dream Anymore) captures a kind of chronically online yet insightful pop that Eli does uniquely well.
Even when singing about something as ordinary as wanting to be loved on “Nobody’s Gir,l” Eli executes it in ways that are distinctly hers: seriously punny (“I gave all I had, he hadn’t a clue / Rivers will bend but men never do”) and surprisingly confessional (“Hand over my heart, I know what I’m worth / But it’s hard to be somebody when you’re nobody’s girl”). While making the personal universal has always been an integral merit of pop, it is Eli’s whimsical vision, passionate high notes, and cultural sensitivity that bring this art form out of the sad-girl-pop bedrooms and onto the glittery stages.
Beneath the bedazzled fedora hats, pink boomboxes, Barbie dolls, and Britney posters, Stage Girl (Not A Dream Anymore) is both a vulnerable narrative about identity and a bold cultural statement about the endless possibility of success, yet mere impossibility, of survival in pop.
Eli is not just the “Girl of Your Dreams.” She is the pop star of a generation, one for the boys stuck in the Bible Belt and the girls who are yet to see themselves.
Stage Girl (Not A Dream Anymore) is out everywhere now.
Follow Eli: Instagram // Spotify // YouTube // Soundcloud
