Estelle may thus far be a one-hit wonder on our shores, but the 30 year old London native has recently unveiled two tracks from her upcoming third studio album, All Of Me, and they make an intriguing pair. The first, released in February, is "Freak," a grinding, sexy uptempo thumper that, at first, could scarcely sound further removed from the breezy "American Boy." Estelle uses the opening seconds of the track to offer what comes off as part dare, part entreaty (overture as overture?), stating "I can be a freak, every day of every week," not quite convincingly but with enough promise to rope in the skeptic listener, if just to see just how "freaky" this squeaky clean darling thinks she is. What proceeds is truly a fascinating three and a half minutes wherein Estelle at worst amuses as she offers a kink-lite manifesto via a delivery smacking with PG-rated joie de vivre and at best succeeds in the plainly stated endeavor she lays out at the outset:
This is something that I've learned.
Listen, I'm about to teach:
Every single girl
Should embrace their inner freaky-freak.
Still, the track makes refreshingly good use of rapper and spelling bee champ Kardinal Offishall (best known to pop audiences as either the force behind the Akon-esque number two hit "Dangerous" and/or the rapper who apologized to Viagra on the bafflingly awful radio edit of Lady Gaga's debut smash "Just Dance"), whose bouncing, humorous featured rap provides enough "freaky" for those demanding of full truth in advertising without dragging the track down, musically or content-wise. But for the most part, "Freak" is a lesson of "Kinky Sex for Soccer Moms" over a pounding, immensely enjoyable dance beat, and that Estelle never fully convinces anyone (even herself, I imagine...as if that were the point) she has gone dirrty the way of Christina "Not Myself Tonight" Aguilera is the charming victory of this thoroughly replayable single.
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