In an industry that all too often only pays lip service to female empowerment, Rebecca Taylor is a tonic. Giving voice to the biting internal monologues women are forced to suppress in polite society, the Rotherham-raised star’s deeply witty and often devastating, sorry-not-sorry approach to songwriting is nothing short of revolutionary.
It’s an ethos she applies to her stage decor too, which at The Forum included a kick drum emblazoned with the legend, “Keep lyrics uncomfortable,” plus two giant projections either side of the stage, asserting, “There is nothing that terrifies a man more than a woman that appears completely deranged.” A lyric from set-opener I’m Fine, the latter statement was further underscored at the song’s climax, when Taylor led the largely-female audience in howling like dogs. But as 2021’s universally-adored LP Prioritise Pleasure proved, purposeful pop with a keen sense of the absurd is Taylor’s forte.
