There’s gonna be a lot of people ready to praise this album to high heaven—probably with Album Of The Year nods, come December—because they think they should. Expect reasons to be how Scene Queen is the most ferociously empowered female voice this space has had in a long time, and how her ‘bimbocore’ style is such a revolutionary development. The first point: fair enough. The second: that’s so far off the mark, it’s almost laughable.
You’d expect that to be brought up a bit more, too; it’s in the name of the act, after all. And when tracing the genealogy of what bimbocore represents—the blanket fusion of a nu-metal low-end with sexually rampant embrace of every MySpace archetype—it’s not even difficult to see what’s going on. This is basically the continuing lineage of acts like Blood On The Dance Floor and, in this case specifically, Millionaires, and if that were acknowledged as openly as it should, there is no way Scene Queen would be welcomed as emphatically as she has been. Forget those acts producing some of the worst music of all time; in some cases, you’ve got some of the worst people of all time, too. And we’ve not salted the earth on that ‘legacy’ because…?
At least subhumans like Dahvie Vanity are the exact individuals that Hannah Collins would delight in castrating all on her own. Maybe, then, the narrative of Scene Queen is about reclamation of this style, and finding a place for the women to be liberated, rather than their former-default role to be used and abused. So of course, 18+ is the best song she’s got, as both shots at the men who’ll use their status to take advantage of young girls (and the labels who’ll take the basest possible approach to ‘damage control’), and as an illustration of what Collins is best at. She can be funny and witty, and capable of a scream so clearly informed by real rage. Between this and Mutual Masturbation—this time aimed at the scene’s bro culture to cover for abject mediocrity—it’s more substance that you’d expect from a façade that might otherwise project, well, none.
On the other hand, though, in the case of the former when there’s so much weight balanced on the line “If a bitch wants to be famous / Tell ’em ‘Write a better hook’”, you might find yourself casting a bit of an incredulous side-eye. Like…come on, now. You’re not finding top-level artistry on an album called Hot Singles In Your Area, featuring the likes of Amateur that’s basically the porn parody of itself. This is the side of Scene Queen that’s given the most airtime, towing the line between provocation and scandalising, and being a bit too cringe for its own good. And in practically every case, that circles back to Collins herself. The airheaded delivery and reams of lyrics about lesbian sex and heightened female power fantasies are a lot, especially when it’s on full blast at all times. You’re not supposed to be drawn away, either; the Scene Queen brand feels entirely predicated on Collins knowingly flaunting her obnoxiousness. It’s a runaway success, then, though to what end is more questionable.
Still, you can say this—more so than any other act built on being loud and in-your-face ahead of most musical competencies, Scene Queen does leave you feeling something more than any of them. Hot Singles In Your Area is never boring, and even on its most tiring or even outright bad moments, it’ll produce an emotion. You know that Collins knows that, as a woman embracing an explicitly feminine-coded aesthetic inside a metal space that can be derisive at best and hostile at worst. So for as little as BDSM does on a personal level, to have it here knowing that a lot of guys it’s designed to poke will take the bait brings about a little satisfaction nonetheless. If you’re actually offended by any of this…well, dunno what to tell you. Grow up? It’s kind of embarrassing that this will be the hill people are willing to die on with regards to metal and adjacent styles going ‘too far’.
At the same time, you can flip that exact sentiment towards those who you just know will make this album their entire personality. To give them credit, they’re likely too young to remember the era this is invoking and how those acts would be set aside for immediate dismissal, but now that Scene Queen is (thankfully) the only one, the nostalgia cycle seems ready to go back there, unfortunately. It’s worth bringing up because Hot Singles In Your Area only works in any capacity as a one-off vision. Hell, even a longer version of this album would probably be stretching things (and it’s dangerously close to that as it is). This whole shtick simply isn’t built to withstand the pressure that’d come from more of it; it feels like every possible idea has already been burned through. To be honest, that isn’t really a shortcoming of this album, but it does need to be addressed. It also ties into why Scene Queen works far better live than on record, where there’s less of a chance to be strained and locked into an immovable spot. Maybe that’s not there now, but you can feel on the horizon based on what’s here.
Or maybe that’s all wrong, and Scene Queen is inexplicably built to last. After all, you’d expect a musical endeavour that’s schlocky to its very bones to have less flexibility than this actually does. Even if that’s not always a good thing—see the additional country leanings of MILF that are like taping gimmicks to gimmicks—at least there’s variety. Whips & Chains opts for Tay Keith-style piano stabs to zhuzh up a basic trap lift; Stuck leans on the robotic scene-pop of its guest star 6arelyhuman; PEG is a frankly astounding earworm with its pop-rock whirrs and grinds. This isn’t just playing with the basics like most of this stuff tends to be. And while it’s true that there’s a similar plasticity even here, that’s just to be taken as the norm at this point. Compared to what it spawned from, it’s worth taking anything that can be called legitimate fun, rather than a spewed-up concoction of Monster, vodka and loose hairs from your god-awful emo fringe, and pretending it so.
And in the spur of the moment, free from the baggage of what this could morph into, Hot Singles In Your Area does, against all odds, feel like a good idea. There’s been effort put into the alchemy of aesthetics and sounds, as production takes a decently meaty and heavy turn that’s imperative to this working. They might not be strict samples, but having POV channel Kanye West’s Black Skinhead and Amateur with Genuwine’s Pony is more creative than many similar acts will allow themselves to be. Wargasm do indeed appear on this album, as if to take notes on how to rely entirely on loudness and edge and not suck shit at it.
For the abundance of issues—within the album and in the wider connotations of this thing just existing—Hot Singles In Your Area isn’t bad. There are multiple asterisks adorning that sentiment, mind, chiefly how overexposure will turn this into a nightmare to navigate around. Collins might wear the larger-than-everything-ever persona with confidence, but a single set of fundamentals hasn’t felt this ready to crumble in recent memory. It’s why there’s a bit of hesitancy when approaching Scene Queen, as tacit as that can be. Yes, this can be fun, and it does achieve everything it sets out to, but when an album’s primary function is to exist while you pray it doesn’t spread, is that a proper endorsement? It’s where Hot Singles In Your Area finds itself, in a field of one both sonically in the current climate, and in terms of overall assessment that few others can really lay claim to. Just wait for the flowers and accolades to roll in by the year’s end, and don’t say you weren’t warned.
For fans of: Delilah Bon, Wargasm, Millionaires
‘Hot Singles In Your Area’ by Scene Queen is released on 28th June on Hopeless Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
