CINNAMON BABE
Fatherless
6/10
NÜ METAL: Before the internet gets itself in a tizzy, let’s get beyond the fact that any accusation thrown at this review for not being positive or supportive has nothing to do with skin color, genitalia, political opinion, or differing musical tastes.
Cinnamon Babe is Stormy Maya who, we’re told, is a model/actress/Instagram celeb/adult content creator making her foray into the world of music. Though Fatherless is her second stab at sonic renown, the first incarnation of Cinnamon Babe being more rooted in pop/hip-hop fell on deaf ears. For sure, Maya’s message of bitter discontent and the angry sublimation of her public-eye experiences is better suited to a more aggressive medium. To wit, she’s cobbled together a bunch of dudes to back her with the music she reportedly grew up listening to, allowing her to caterwaul about being a “misunderstood bitch,” her experiences as a sex worker, how she’s characterized by certain segments of society, being the victim of racism, and shitty dudes all delivered as a kick to marginalization’s ‘nads.
The backing band may be tiptoeing across a steamy nü metal boilerplate, but they do the 4/4 barre chord thing well enough to keep things catchy and provide a solid base for Maya to do her thing. However, outside of her message of frustration, shitty experiences, and new school y-chromosome empowerment, she’s got a decent enough handle on the boom-bap hip-hop cadence (“Loose”), but her yell ’n’ scream voice is ineffectual, lacks power, and is all throat, no diaphragm. And during the clean singing sequences, she’s noticeably off-key. There are a couple interesting musical moments on offer here—the neat doubled guitar layers in “Gaslight,” for instance—and whoever tracked the drum sound knows how to capture appropriately epic tones, but behind the spectacle that is Maya herself, her background, story, and public profile, there’s not a lot for seasoned fans of metal/heavy rock to wrap their ears around. ~ Kevin Stewart-Panko
