Uffie – Sunshine Factory

Works best as a fusion of uptempo beats and self-consciously silly lines – and there’s no shame in that

Around the turn of the previous decade underground and mainstream music were quite firmly segregated. But that being said, with their rapping/singing style and cocky, hedonistic attitudes Uffie and Ke$ha could have swapped places without many batting an eye. Uffie’s electro style has morphed since then and gained more live instrumentation, but partying still features heavily, as the celeb cameo interludes on Sunshine Factory make clear, and her eccentricity runs through this record just the same.

Where Does The Party Go? sports a delightful bass guitar riff and disco groove underneath free-associative lyrics (“Obama / call me if you wanna / you can talk about your trauma / I’ll take on all your drama”), as glitchy effects add an element of chaos to the mix. Sophia has some wicked house production, its swung hi-hats and cut-up chords just about hanging together with the beat, while Giants’ hazy electronics approximate shoegaze for the molly generation.

It’s unquestionable that artists like Uffie had a sizeable influence on sometime collaborator Charli XCX, and the song Anna Jetson repays the favour by sounding a lot like the avant-pop British songstress. Big, bold synth chords fight to be heard amongst booming bass, cacophonous breakbeats and disaffected, almost robotic vocals. The sense of euphoria on a track like this is infectious, and Prickling Skin gets similarly noisy though with a more rock-ish bass riff and live drums.

The album attempts to end on a gentler note with the auto-tuned ballad Crowdsurfinginyoursheets, but unfortunately without enough forward momentum it becomes the weakest track on here; perhaps with more focus and better production values it could have succeeded. But generally Sunshine Factory works best as a fusion of uptempo beats and self-consciously silly lines, and there’s no shame in that, as 13 years in, Uffie can still live it up as much as ever.