Self Esteem begins her I Tour This All The Time tour at Nottingham's Rock City...
Self Esteem is the solo reinvention of Rebecca Lucy Taylor, formerly part of the duo Slow Club. Swapping out mellow folk sounds for empowering and unapologetic R&B-infused pop music, Taylor has spent over ten years in the music industry and is now boldly portraying her own message without any fear or reservations about what people may think.
Throughout the show, Taylor didn’t pause to interact with the audience very frequently, except for an impromptu and unscripted anecdote that made me consider the art of writing a gig review. It was about an article that was written after the first show of her previous tour, which revolved only around the outfits that she and her backing singers were wearing – comments that were both sexist and classist.
One thing I can promise is that their outfits definitely won’t be the main focus of this review – I can guarantee that. But they were so spectacular that it is impossible not to appreciate them just once, and then we will be swiftly moving on. With three outfit changes, beginning with grey oversized suits, followed by a striking red look complete with cowboy hats, and concluding with a matching black co-ord set, each outfit created stunning visuals on the stage.
Now that's out the way, let's move on, because there was much more to the show than that. The set began with a string of hits from her most recent (and brilliant) Mercury Prize nominated album, Prioritise Pleasure, including the title track, Fucking Wizardry, and Moody. She then went on to debut multiple new songs, titled Happy Valley, Mother and Love Second, hinting at the exciting possibility of her releasing new music very soon.
The harmonies created by Taylor and her three backing singers were beautiful throughout the entire show, shining most notably during moments like The 345 and Just Kids. The poses that they formed while perfectly executing these notes created empowering images of the four women united together on stage in solidarity, performing in perfect unison with each other.
Taylor clearly knows her audience; the merch table was adorned with ‘6Music Dad’ caps, and this perfectly reflected the crowd that flocked into the sold-out venue. This gave rise to an interesting dynamic: there were barely any phone screens in sight. It almost felt like there was a ban on filming the show, and there were only a small minority of people who had missed the memo. It was a beautiful rarity to see a crowd of people truly experiencing and appreciating things in the moment.
The main portion of the set concluded with her most popular song, I Do This All The Time, followed by The Best, a song from her debut album Compliments Please. “This is my last song,” Taylor said with an obvious wink at the crowd, acknowledging the secret that everyone in the room was already in on – she would be coming back for an encore very shortly.
She returned to the stage to perform a duo of tracks from Prioritise Pleasure – I’m Fine and Still Reigning. The former saw her barking like a dog into the microphone; “if we are approached by a group of men we will bark, like dogs,” the outro of the song explains. The latter track perfectly captured the essence of the entire evening, ending the performance on an empowering, wholesome and uplifting moment.
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