Self Esteem - Your Wife EP

by Kimberly Bright

published: 17 / 1 / 2018

Label: Self Esteem
Format: 12"

Rebecca Taylor’s Self Esteem debut EP is an empowering letter of resignation on behalf of all side chicks everywhere

Review

Vocalist, drummer, and guitarist Rebecca Taylor began exploring visual art and film under the name Self Esteem after leaving Sheffield duo Slow Club (with Charles Watson) last year, showing paintings and prints at art exhibitions. Ten years as half of Slow Club had left her frustrated by the limitations on expression she had placed on herself as well as those imposed by indie culture itself. After playing Jamie T a few of her early solo songs, he encouraged her to continue recording music as Self Esteem as well. The result, produced by Django Django’s Dave McLean, is a true statement of independence that draws on her inner strength with increasing boldness by the end of the title song. In addition to drawing on influences from pop culture and her own life, Rebecca embraced parts of mainstream pop culture far outside the indie sphere for inspiration: Rihanna, Destiny’s Child, Kanye West, and RuPaul’s Drag Race, which she binge-watched during a debilitating depression. 'Your Wife' and 'OMG' are about extricating herself from a disappointing affair with a married man that appears to be causing her a great deal of pain. 'Your Wife' begins with angry percussion, indicating from the first beat that the narrator is well and truly fed up with her clandestine relationship, broken promises, limitations, and being someone’s escape from the ennui of his everyday life. “Yeah, your wife thinks of me while you’re thinking of me.” Rebecca’s sneering delivery in the accompanying video pretty much says it all: “Maybe you should find another hobby…go down another path.” She further taunts her lover with the proclamation that, unlike him, she is “nothing but free.” The remix includes an additional twisting, exotic tribal rhythm part that sounds like it could be from a spy film soundtrack, with lots of sneaking around and narrow escapes. 'OMG' sees the affair unravel further following her epiphany at the end of an assignation as they postpone the inevitability of going home separately, “Oh my God, is this all we’ve got?” Maintaining the situation together isn’t working. “So set her free,” she pleads, referring to herself as much as his betrayed spouse. The fence line around the family home, as impenetrable as a brick wall, is the hard boundary of reality that he has a wife and child waiting for him. The feeling by the end of the EP is that she has finally struggled free of the entanglement, perhaps bolstered by RuPaul’s exhortation that you can’t really love anybody else until you love yourself first.