Cruel Youth Returns With “Devil In Paradise”: Listen

[News]

Teddy Sinclair, AKA Natalia Kills, AKA Natalia Cappucini…AKA Verbalicious…AKA The Powder Room, frontwoman (and maybe only woman?) of Cruel Youth, has not had the easiest run in the music industry. After debuting with a top 20 UK hit back in 2005 as Verbalicious only for her label to go under, Sinclair managed to build up a loyal cult following under the name  Natalia Kills. She wrote songs for Madonna and Rihanna and landed a celebrity judge gig for the X Factor New Zealand, and it seemed her celebrity was truly rising. Until this happened… and everything came crashing down for her.

Clips of Sinclair and her husband Willy Moon tearing X Factor contestant Joe Irvine to pieces went viral, and the two were fired from the show and crucified on the internet. It even spawned a popular reaction image for meme culture to have its way with.

The reaction image derived from the clip, courtesy of Tumblr.

Sinclair received barrages of “dislikes” and hate messages, escalating to death threats, and beyond vague statements was unable to really fend for herself. So she went quiet, changed her name from Natalia Kills to Teddy Sinclair, and “started a band” called Cruel Youth so she could separate her identity.

Just for clarity, there’s no real reason to believe Cruel Youth ISN’T a band, except for the fact that the supposed other two members have never been seen, the lyrics of any Cruel Youth song are extremely reminiscent of Natalia Kills lyrics, and that Cruel Youth songs are pretty exclusively about Teddy Sinclair’s (very personal) life experiences. So… yeah.

Cruel Youth, the… trio..? Image courtesy of Audiobaby.

So, all that being said, we arrive in November 2018. Cruel Youth has released one project, +30mg, in September 2016, and this is the first anyone has heard of them since then. The song, I have to say, is fantastic.

+30mg played with vocals similar to Amy Winehouse (notably in Mr. Watson) and hard guitars that seemed straight out of a Spaghetti Western film (Alexis Texas). Devil In Paradise takes these aspects to the nines. This song feels like hanging out of the back of an off-roader, watching the dust fly up without a care. The line “I’ll never go back to California” adds to this effect, like the song is capturing the moment of making an escape.

Cruel Youth takes a lot of vocal inspiration from legend Amy Winehouse, image courtesy of The Stranger.

… That is, until the 2:17 mark, where the instrumentation drops off completely save for a piano and pitched vocals. At this point, the composition moves into a demonic, dripping rap section. I imagine the car we were riding in during the first section of the song spun out and crashed as this section sounds like descending to Hell. In the best way possible, of course.

To close out the song, a candid audio clip plays of a fan, saying “Excuse me, I just wanted to say you’re a wonderful singer… and I, err… I actually used to be a really big fan..” Used to be. Sounds about right.

Finally, the lyrics. Sinclair is my personal pick for favorite lyricist. I think her 2013 album Trouble is immaculately written, and this song delivers on all accounts of her lyrical content I love. With the chorus(?) section, a vivid picture becomes clearer with each stanza of the far-from-paradise existence Sinclair desires: “I wanna be where the sun don’t shine/Where the birds don’t sing/And the kids don’t smile… Where the roses die/And the thorns ain’t fake… Where God gets high/And the priests don’t pray”.  During the rap section, it becomes abundantly clear that the whole song is discussing Sinclair’s experiences in the Los Angeles music industry: “Mama said, don’t you go sign with the Devil/Titties out, sniffing snow white with the Devil/Clever guys lying, and I’m buying – say I’m ‘special'”.

Teddy Sinclair’s life and career is a rollercoaster, constantly changing without real direction. The only thing that remains consistent is how outrageously good her output is. She’s done it again.

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