Album Review: Freidrich$ – I Wanna Be Adored: The Best of Freidrich$
Freidrich$ wants to be adored. We all secretly do. And there’s a reliable way to be adored universally: become a pop star. The first step is to go and record some songs. And, once you've recorded enough, you can collect them into a greatest hits compilation. And that's exactly what Freidrich$ did. Because he wants to be adored. So let's give it to him. Turn on the record, pump up the volume, see what happens.
And what happens is “Yanking My Chain”. It's the first step to glory. Literally, it's the first thing the artist has ever recorded. There's an endearing naivete in his delivery.
And what happens is “Yanking My Chain”. It's the first step to glory. Literally, it's the first thing the artist has ever recorded. There's an endearing naivete in his delivery.
Freidrich$
You can hear that there's no distance, no irony yet in my voice. I thought things could still turn out okay! "What a delusion," as I sing on a later track.
The sincerity doesn't stop here, finding a different vessel on "Lovesong", an "attempt to make an outsider R&B sleeper hit in a milleu of indie rock melancholy". The vocals here are disarmingly vulnerable, to the point where the whole thing feels like an awkward confession in a dimly lit bedroom (which is a definite win, as far as outsider R&B sleeper hits go).
“Cloudz” is an evident hommage to cloud rap titans, like A$AP Rocky, which I had guessed before turning on the song and reading the press release. The self-disclosing titles (much like with "Lovesong" and its nod to The Cure) are yet another device to show us that all masks are off (even if the artist is wearing heavy clown makeup).
And then comes a moment of pure beauty — “Alissa with an I”. It brings the vibe of 2011-2012, early The Weeknd and Frank Ocean mixtapes, JMSN and all those guys. The gentle falsetto takes no prisoners, and the ghostly backing track creates an almost surreal atmosphere.
“My Princess,” that samples Flight Facilities, continues where the previous track left off. And much like the nu-R&B (or however it was called in 2011) genre suggests, it's bittersweet and ambigious.
“Cloudz” is an evident hommage to cloud rap titans, like A$AP Rocky, which I had guessed before turning on the song and reading the press release. The self-disclosing titles (much like with "Lovesong" and its nod to The Cure) are yet another device to show us that all masks are off (even if the artist is wearing heavy clown makeup).
And then comes a moment of pure beauty — “Alissa with an I”. It brings the vibe of 2011-2012, early The Weeknd and Frank Ocean mixtapes, JMSN and all those guys. The gentle falsetto takes no prisoners, and the ghostly backing track creates an almost surreal atmosphere.
“My Princess,” that samples Flight Facilities, continues where the previous track left off. And much like the nu-R&B (or however it was called in 2011) genre suggests, it's bittersweet and ambigious.
Freidrich$
It pretends to be sweet, but it’s not. In fact, it’s a joke that should hit you right in the feels. Hopefully.
“Blood (Da Bu Di Da Bu Di)” exists in an unlikely place where a cheesy 2000s Eurohit reference meets gentle Latin ballads and oxygen-depleted emo-rap.
"Rh" also does, but it's a different unlikely place. The song references Radiohead in its title, while musically it points at all the chill summer music from Steve Lacy to Mac Demarco's more downtempo efforts, but keeps the arrangement refreshingly barebones. Another point of reference here is Cage, "the psycho "horrorcore" rapper".
“Civilization” combines warm pads, funky palm-muted guitars and amazingly beautiful falsetto vox to create a piece that "tries to hold something together that probably doesn’t hold, like certain types of relationships".
“Built 2 Spill” is another magical moment on the album. It successfully recreates the hazy and fairy-tale-like atmosphere of "falling in love in cars", at the same time paying hommage to the band referenced in its title.
"Liberal Life" throws together social commentary, Freidrich$'s trademark swooping falsetto and an unexpected beat infused with influences from 90s New Age and 2000s Chill-out / Easy-listening, to the point where it almost feels like massage parlour music (which totally aligns with the lyrics).
"Weird Life" takes everything one step further, making things — you guessed it — a little too weird.
"Rh" also does, but it's a different unlikely place. The song references Radiohead in its title, while musically it points at all the chill summer music from Steve Lacy to Mac Demarco's more downtempo efforts, but keeps the arrangement refreshingly barebones. Another point of reference here is Cage, "the psycho "horrorcore" rapper".
“Civilization” combines warm pads, funky palm-muted guitars and amazingly beautiful falsetto vox to create a piece that "tries to hold something together that probably doesn’t hold, like certain types of relationships".
“Built 2 Spill” is another magical moment on the album. It successfully recreates the hazy and fairy-tale-like atmosphere of "falling in love in cars", at the same time paying hommage to the band referenced in its title.
"Liberal Life" throws together social commentary, Freidrich$'s trademark swooping falsetto and an unexpected beat infused with influences from 90s New Age and 2000s Chill-out / Easy-listening, to the point where it almost feels like massage parlour music (which totally aligns with the lyrics).
"Weird Life" takes everything one step further, making things — you guessed it — a little too weird.
Freidrich$
“Weird Life” goes further—too far, maybe. I stopped caring about "too far" long ago.
And once you've wandered too far in your musical quests, nothing is off limits, even marrying's Tinashe's vibes with the gloom of Black Metal, which is exactly what Freidrich$ does on "Wrong Like T" – to unexpectedly interesting results.
“Pumpkinhead” keeps the sincere tone that left us disarmed from the very beginning of the album, powers it up with the hauntingly beautiful vocal delivery that Freidrich$ came to master later and tops everything off with the sweet weirdness we enjoyed on the last few jams.
“Pumpkinhead” keeps the sincere tone that left us disarmed from the very beginning of the album, powers it up with the hauntingly beautiful vocal delivery that Freidrich$ came to master later and tops everything off with the sweet weirdness we enjoyed on the last few jams.
Freidrich$
“Pumpkinhead” closes it out the only way that makes sense to me: a little stupid.
I Wanna Be Adored doesn’t bother pretending it’s tidy. The early stuff is all “I have no idea what I’m doing, but here I am, laying it all out—listen anyway,” and the later tracks are like, “Okay, maybe I do, and I have more scars and fewer illusions—but let’s not get boring, otherwise why even bother showing up?”
References? Dropped all over the place. Styles? Drifting and colliding like ideas without a babysitter. The persona? Shapeshifting, messy, unpredictable—staying totally themselves, even when waving their hands and yelling “adore me, please.” And somehow, it works.
Freidrich$ wanted attention, he got it, and the album proves it in real time—one step feels weird, the next clumsy, the third cuts through as painfully beautiful. The final tracks aren’t a point of arrival; they don’t tie everything up. They just hint at what comes next, and you’re left wondering where the brilliant and wounded man behind the theatrical makeup is going to drag us from here.
References? Dropped all over the place. Styles? Drifting and colliding like ideas without a babysitter. The persona? Shapeshifting, messy, unpredictable—staying totally themselves, even when waving their hands and yelling “adore me, please.” And somehow, it works.
Freidrich$ wanted attention, he got it, and the album proves it in real time—one step feels weird, the next clumsy, the third cuts through as painfully beautiful. The final tracks aren’t a point of arrival; they don’t tie everything up. They just hint at what comes next, and you’re left wondering where the brilliant and wounded man behind the theatrical makeup is going to drag us from here.