From “One” to “You’re Not The One,” Sky Ferreira has officially come full circle.
It hasn’t been quite a, err…smooth ride to Sky’s endlessly delayed debut.
In fact, it feels like ages ago when she first dropped her As If! EP back in 2011, followed by last year’s Ghost, which included my personal favorite track of 2012 (that has sort of become a full-fledged life anthem): The Dev Hynes and Ariel Rechtshaid-assisted “Everything Is Embarrassing.” But the delays and push-backs continued. And then, there was that whole, um, legal snarl recently.
But real life is separate from art (is it, though?), so the show must go on.
“You’re Not The One” is the lead single from Sky’s forthcoming debut record Night Time, My Time, due out at the end of October. She’s been performing the song live for months now (like at her CMJ showcase at Bowery Ballroom last October), and an early version of the track hit the net by the beginning of 2013.
Today, the album version finally hit iTunes. And although the studio version of the track loses the snarling intensity of the live experience, it’s still a clear winner. “You’re Not The One” is a grungy, gritty slice of fuzzy rock that further separates Sky from her electro-pop origins (gone are those synthesized, halcyon days of yore), but its that yelping, hook-filled chorus that keeps the song’s feet planted squarely in the pop world.
Appropriately, the slick, Grant Singer-directed video matches the moodiness of Sky’s agitated anthem. With her oversized sunglasses, leather jacket and jagged blonde ‘do (she looks stunning, obviously), it’s almost like watching “Lucky Star”-era Madonna navigate her way through a rocky relationship inside a 1980’s teen horror flick. She’d make her idol proud too, given that this is easily Sky’s most assured video to date.
She’s owning the frame like a proper superstar, violently tossing her hair, pouting in smoky club corners and writhing against walls with too-cool-for-school conviction. Of course, those murderous glances in the direction of her philandering beau are signature Sky, and totally to die for…maybe even literally.
No spoilers on how this all ends, but make sure to watch all the way through. And one more time (one one one one…), I’m #ProudOfSky.
“You’re Not The One” was released on September 24. (iTunes)