Send "CocknBullKid " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Guardian |
 Hackney's CocknBullKid, aka Anita Blay, has certainly come on a bit since she appeared at the 2008 Camden Crawl, squawking over discordant electronic backing. She has since signed to a major label and discovered a more saleable style of synthpop, here polished by Marina and the Diamonds producer Liam Howe. The result may scupper any residual claim to "edginess", but this lustrous pop reveals Blay to be a confident singer and sardonic lyricist – you have to love an artist who can come up with a line as self-deprecating as "One pill makes you an absolute know-it-all", as huskily crooned on the autobiographical track CocknBullKid. Howe's production is lavish in its use of strings, piano and steel drums, varnishing the whole thing with a patina of carnivalish good vibes that contrasts intriguingly with Blay's tetchy lyrics. New Lily Allens are 10 a penny these days, but this album makes a reasonable claim to the title....full text |
| Nme |
| When we first clapped ears on CocknBullKid (née Anita Blay) in 2007, we noted her “Freudian kitchen sink dramas and minimal Kelis-like beats”. In the context of the glorious Day-Glo belch of new rave, she was uniquely clinical and creepy. Early songs like ‘The Vote’ unfurled with a dark alchemy that shared with Missy Elliott a desire to push R&B somewhere odd and unfamiliar. Over the following four years, the difficult birth of 2011’s ‘Adulthood’ saw the adoption of some ill-fitting musical guises. There was the electro ingénue (2008’s ‘On My Own’) and then the wordy ball-buster (2009’s ‘I’m Not Sorry’), both almost self-consciously bland, like the act of someone going through an identity crisis, ground down by school bullies, trying to be normal. It brought to mind a line by Blay’s hero, Madonna: “When you’re trying hard to be your best/Could you be a little less?” ‘Adulthood’ finds Blay back on track, finding her oddness through a flick-book of intelligent pop references, while the likes of Metronomy’s Joe Mount and All Saints’ Shaznay Lewis have assisted her in wrapping up all that darkly sarcastic self-loathing in a sparkling bow. The highlights come in the first half: the title track wraps a bass-heavy Aaliyah-like beat over lines like “My mother turned my father into every guy I dated”; ‘CocknBullKid’, like a speedy rewrite of Kate Bush’s ‘Suspended In Gaffa’, is full of joyous, self-referential wordplay (“Her words are made of glitter/She’s a bullshitter”). Things get sickly sweet during the second half; the twinkly pianos on ‘Asthma Attack’ and ‘Bellyache’ feel like overdosing on leftover Easter eggs. Despite this, you’re left very aware that it’s still smarter and more exciting than 99 per cent of the Top 40. And that’s a pretty big victory in itself....full text |
| Bbc |
| Hackney lass Anita Blay, aka thecocknbullkid, emerged in 2008 as an exciting new street-tough electro-popper with a sense of humour. The excellent self-released and Metronomy-produced On My Own single got her a spot on Later with Jools Holland before she’d bagged a record deal. Onstage she was an engagingly feisty and funny art-pop performer with a tinge of M.I.A. attitude and Grace Jones style. But, as the press release accompanying her debut rightly points out, there’s been a lot of that about over the last decade, and it rarely makes sense to anyone outside of music journos, fashionistas and The Mighty Boosh-like denizens of Hoxton and Shoreditch. Cue a two-year disappearance and the kind of re-think which often occurs once major labels get involved. Ms Blay now returns with a bevy of name co-writers, Marina & The Diamonds producer Liam Howe, and a set of sweet, eager-to-please songs. Oh, and a dropping of the "The" from her name. Let’s not forget that crucial bit of rebranding. Adulthood is not an unpleasant listen. Howe is a producer who knows how to make radio ear candy without veering into blandness, and Peter Morén (Peter, Bjorn and John), Joseph Mount (Metronomy) and Shaznay Lewis (All Saints) do Blay proud in the cute melody department, especially on the rousing CocknBullKid and Yellow. But these are solid-yet-unspectacular pop tunes rather than uplifting anthems, and an artist who began as a slinkier Lady Sovereign now sounds like Girls Aloud after a bout of minor depression. The role model for confessional lyrics set to great girl-pop production is Lily Allen, of course; but Ms Allen has a gift for making the personal sound universal and slyly political. Blay was always a melodic singer rather than a rapper or ranter, but the croon has become breathy and needy, and the former stroppy girl just comes over as moaning and self-obsessed on the likes of Hoarder, Asthma Attack and the title-track, while missed hit Hold on to Your Misery is as dispiriting as its title....full text |
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