“Being sad is so last year/I’m over it,” Anne-Marie Nicholson sings early on her third album. In fact it is two years since the Essex singer released Therapy, a collection exploring the difficult mental health journey that has led to her becoming an ambassador for the charity Mind. This time around she’s by no means claiming everything is perfect, but any ill feelings are turned outwards as delicious rage in a way that makes for an enjoyably ranty half hour.
Unhealthy is unvarnished, with the usually perfectly turned-out performer standing with her nose smooshed against a shower door on the cover. It’s also very short, with only You & I, a duet with American balladeer Khalid, going a bit past the three-minute mark across 13 tracks. The shouty song titles, all written in capitals, read like they should be made of glued-together letters cut out of a tabloid newspaper, tied to a brick and hurled through a window: “SUCKS TO BE YOU,” “SAD B!TCH,”, “PSYCHO,” “HAUNT YOU,” “TRAINWRECK,” “GRUDGE,” and so on. This time she’s less Live Laugh Love, more Scream Stamp Smash.
