© 2024 KASU
Your Connection to Music, News, Arts and Views for 65 Years
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Sky Ferreira, 'Don't Forget'

If the fictional high schoolers of The Breakfast Club hadn't found saccharine commonality during one Saturday afternoon detention, the film's delinquent Bender could have walked off the school grounds to Sky Ferreira's latest single, "Don't Forget" — fist-raised, but perhaps middle-finger up. Her first new song in three years after 2019's "Downhill Lullaby," "Don't Forget" plays to the pop star's strengths: pairing her strong, slightly-sneered vocals with slick '80s rock, fit with a programmed drum beat that sounds like it could break through walls.

There's always been a welcome, self-aware bitterness to Ferreira's music, a rising tween star turned alt-pop darling with a career marred by shaky live performances, blog tabloid chatter and frequently stalled album releases. On "Don't Forget," just as she did on "I Blame Myself," she plays her part as pop rebel once again, breaking the fourth wall: "I don't need to deceive you, I'm the real bad girl," she sings. Out of the shadows, if even for a moment, Ferreira's still got it.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Hazel Cills
Hazel Cills is an editor at NPR Music, where she edits breaking music news, reviews, essays and interviews. Before coming to NPR in 2021, Hazel was a culture reporter at Jezebel, where she wrote about music and popular culture. She was also a writer for MTV News and a founding staff writer for the teen publication Rookie magazine.