And live, it’s great. There’s no denying she’s a great performer: onstage there’s no noticing the album’s shortcomings; any line she’s singing, good or bad, will be delivered well. That much was evident tonight at her album release party, where Corine captivated the room entirely despite not coming on until the wee hours of Friday morning. “FreakyT”, a viral fan favorite, is an obvious bang with the crowd, but several sleeper hits— (“Backyard”, ”Lotto”, and the new “Damn Right (ft. Pouya)”)— elicit similar reactions from onlookers as they leapt about and whined and grinded with strangers against the slinky 808s and booming bass. Since her debut in 2018, she has been recognized as a princess of the underground— after all, the release party was in a Brooklyn warehouse in the middle of Bushwick, and given a mic and a stage, Corine remains a charming character and an assured, confident performer. CORINIAN seems to be her most thoughtful project yet, never breaking its self-assured, hard-edged stride, while still clinging to some vulnerability, even if the album is a little uneven. While she does seem to lean on the features a bit to fill the holes left by shaky composition, the lyricsm of her solo tracks has steadily improved to date, and this really shines through in the second half of the album. Honorable mention is “Impossible Girl”, which ends the album on a high note with an bashful, yet braggadocio exploration of self-love. She is, after all, “just a girl”. It’s disarmingly charming, proof that Corine is full of contradictions— she’s more than just punchlines and grillz.
