Cape God is the second studio album by Canadian singer Allie X. It was released on February 21, 2020 by Twin Music. The release followed her extended playSuper Sunset, but departed from her previous style and process of songwriting. The album was primarily written by Allie X and James Alan Ghaleb, and produced by Oscar Görres. It received generally positive reviews.
Background and development
Allie X released her extended play Super Sunset in 2018. Cape God was originally intended as a sister record to the EP, though Allie X later decided to split the project into a separate album. She contrasted her approach to writing Cape God with what she had taken for her previous releases. While she stated that her previous releases involved experimentation with "alter egos", Cape God was "a pretty personal, pretty intimate body of work". In an ask-me-anything session on Reddit, Allie X noted that "it was easier to make this record than any other" and that " happened very seamlessly." Allie X drew inspiration for the album from the characters within Heroin: Cape Cod, USA, a 2015 documentary about the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts. She wrote songs from the point of view of one of the documentary's characters, and developed a fictionalized Cape Cod in her mind as a way to reflect on her personal experiences. She met producer Oscar Görres and songwriter James Alan Ghaleb in Stockholm, shortly after writing the opening line for the album's first track "Fresh Laundry". She described her songwriting process as "seamless, therapeutic, and very enjoyable," though she also credited Görres's production for being able to complement her "layered kind of complex lyrics". Cape God was Allie X's first album to feature vocal duets. She began work with feature artists Troye Sivan and Mitski in 2018.
The album opens with "Fresh Laundry", described by Sarah Shodipe from The Line Of Best Fit as lo-fi, while Stuart Derdeyn of Vancouver Sun wrote that the song had a "big booming beat, spooky vocal and splashy keyboard hook". Allie X described "Devil I Know" as about dealing with a toxic relationship; reviews described the song as catchy and as combining melodies with moodiness, but also noted a strong resemblance to the Arctic Monkeys song "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?". "Love Me Wrong" is a ballad featuring Australian singer Troye Sivan. Allie X gained inspiration for the song from the 2018 coming-of-age film Boy Erased, in which Sivan played a supporting role. She noted the similarities between the film's main character and her writing process for the album. The song showed two perspectives on a lovers' quarrel. Reviews widely described "Super Duper Party People" as the album's standout track, while noting its corny title. musicOMH described it as "a bass-led anthem" with lyrics about people at "a particularly seedy nightclub", DIY said the track "perfectly displays 's ability to create a refreshing take on what could otherwise be by-numbers pop", while Exclaim! said the track was "hallucinogenic" with references to drugs and sex. "Susie Save Your Love", a collaboration with indie rock artist Mitski, is a pop song with drums, bass and synths and included "depressing" lyrics about a woman named Susie stuck in an unwanted relationship. Paste described Allie X and Mitski's vocals as "almost too perfect of a match", but that it was a "solid track" for dancing alone. musicOMH noted that the song "sounds unaccountably sad yet impossible not to dance to".
Release and promotion
The album was preceded by the release of four promotional singles, the first of which, "Fresh Laundry" was released on September 27, 2019. This was followed by "Rings a Bell" on October 18, 2019, "Regulars" on November 8, 2019, and "Love Me Wrong", a collaboration with Troye Sivan, on December 6, 2019. "Devil I Know" was released as the lead single for the album on January 31, 2020.
Critical reception
On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 78 based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Corey van den Hoogenband of Exclaim! said the album "elegantly blends" Allie X's new and old styles, creating " best work yet". He remarked that the instrumentals contained "a carefully crafted grit and griminess", noting that while she had used such an effect to create a "sense of impending doom" on all her work, the instrumentals on Cape God felt more communicative than her previous records. John Murphy of musicOMH said that the album had an "experimental edge" separating it from the work of other alternative pop singers like Marina Diamandis and Charli XCX, making it "one of the most delightfully weirdest albums of the year". Q magazine noted that while "Cape God might be an awful place to visit", "the tunes are great". Eric Torres of Pitchfork described Cape God as "the strongest concept in her catalog to date". In a more mixed review, Martin Toussaint of DIY stated that while the album was more ambitious than Allie X's previous releases, it "lacked any edge she's previously shown" and "on the whole falls short". Toussaint criticized the album for failing to "push boundaries" in the same way as did Allie X's previous works such as CollXtion I.
