Anne-Marie – ‘Unhealthy’ review: reflective pop proves tricky to pull off

28 July, 2023

Anne-Marie

Relatability is key to the Anne-Marie brand. With her 2018 debut album ‘Speak Your Mind’ and its follow-up ‘Therapy’, the Essex-raised artist (born Anne-Marie Nicholson) positioned herself as a spokesperson for self-acceptance, moving from bravado to stark confessions over slick, plain-spoken pop. There’s a silver lining to every relationship gone sour, she would often tell us over tropical house-lite beats, settling into a comfort zone of songs that would dominate radio airplay and H&M playlists for years to come.

On her third full-length effort ‘Unhealthy’, the singer’s gaze shifts inwards, as she charts two successive relationships atop punchy production. Lyrically, however, each personal disclosure is almost always followed by an immediate resolution: “Everyone’s so down round here / I’m tired of it,” she sings on ‘Sad Bitch’; “My red eyes, they go twice as wide / It might look like pain but to me it’s bliss,” so goes the Shania Twain-featuring title track.

Most of the songs are also fleeting in their length, too: with the majority clocking in at just over two minutes, it’s easy to assume that they have been kept short in order to benefit playlisting. Following her smash-hit ‘2002’, Anne-Marie swiftly accrued over a billion streams early on in her career, so this is an understandable and savvy – if frustrating – formula.

Elsewhere, some of Anne-Marie’s reference points feel opportunistic, rather than truly lived-in. The melody of Aitch collaboration ‘Psycho’ brazenly lifts from ‘Mambo No.5’, following a wider pattern of pop stars referencing bombastic ‘90s hits. Rita Ora recently offered a faithful recreation of Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’, while Anne-Marie has proved herself to be a serial offender, having teamed up with Coi Leray and David Guetta to recycle the hook of Haddaway’s ‘What Is Love?’ on the non-album single ‘Baby Don’t Hurt Me’.

Whether this interpolation is a deliberate, cheeky ploy or a gimmick from Anne-Marie is up for debate: either way, it immediately gives ‘Psycho’ an expiry date. Similarly, she flips Oliver’s ‘I’d Do Anything’ into a chorus of speak-talking sass on ‘Obsessed’; the song is both winking and not, lighthearted but also packed with lyrical clunkers like “I’ll do anything for you / Go to Timbuktu.”

Anne-Marie’s goal of making pop that represents the most intimate, darkest of feelings is admirable but not always effective. It’s not exactly clear what message she’s pining for: these 13 tracks have vaguely empowered themes, but are often overshadowed by hyperbolic takes on revenge (‘Grudge’, ‘Haunt You’) – à la Mimi Webb’s recent arson-baiting hit ‘House On Fire’ – without much, if any, emotional payoff.

‘Irish Goodbye’, meanwhile, accomplishes what Anne-Marie seemingly wanted for ‘Unhealthy’. Built around pillowy textures and Disney-like strings, there’s something immediately dreamlike about the track, as she articulates a desire for one more moment with a soon-to-be ex. It stands out as a true, shining highlight amid largely icy filler.