By Aaron Richter
Kele Okereke might hold down the current title of “British Singer Most Likely to Dab His Tears With a Morrissey Poster,” but Lady Sovereign‘s return could leave the Bloc Party frontman sounding as cheery and optimistic as a motivational speaker. On her second album, Jigsaw, the saddest midget in the game lets her emotions flow, and self-titled dissects all the wrist-cutting weepiness.
1. She knows she’s an outcast.
Sov begins the album with “I’m weird, and you’re weird. Let’s be mates.”
2. She’s been listening to the Cure.
She samples “Close To Me” on “So Human.”
3. She’s embraced apathy.
Sample lyric: “If I could play guitar, then I’d play it, but I can’t. So I just sit here.” [Update: Thanks for the good ears, bibiana at sovnation.com.]
4. She’s fragile.
Sample lyric: “My heart is like a jigsaw puzzle, pick it up and fix it for me.”
5. She’s anxious about tomorrow.
Sample lyric: “Doesn’t it feel much better, when you’ve had a better day than yesterday.”
6. She’s spending a lot of time on Facebook.
Or at least enough to write a song, “I Got The Goods,” about it.
7. She’s contemplated suicide.
Quoth the rapper on her MySpace page: “I was falling apart. I really was. I had suicidal thoughts. I was somewhere else.â€
8. She needs constant self-affirmation.
And thus repeats her own name endlessly.
9. She feels like crying.
Sample lyric: “I feel like cryin’.”
10. She’s working to overcome the anxiety of her past.
Of course we all remember the disastrous series of shows she put on in support of Public Warning. This slope is steep, short one.
