Rico Nasty wants to do, and be, everything. She’s not so much a chameleon as she is a perpetual juggler of sounds and ideas, picking them up and dropping them again with a giddy glee. This has always been a central tenet of her artistry, but on album three, her quirky polystylism is more varied – and chaotic - than ever.
LETHAL is a canvas of clashing colours, initially dominated by the clicks and thuds of a drum machine and myriad synths. It may be versatile, but Rico’s constant fiddling of the dial means there’s something scatterbrained about this album.
Undeniably, however, there are great moments. The sassy trap-rock of TEETHSUCKER (YEA3X) demonstrates the best of her sharp, raspy flow and brass-knuckled, even funny putdowns – ‘I’m tryna pop out like a titty,’ is certainly a howler. Elsewhere, the dreamy BUTTERFLY KISSES and the pitch-black grit of GRAVE offer some intriguing experiments in tone, but generally, she is stronger at the sour than the sweet. The caramel-sticky ON THE LOW is a cloying and slightly cringeworthy ode to sex and love, while the hyperpop-tinged, baby-voiced PINK comes off as a little irritating.