SALVATION
Rebecca Black continues to rewrite her myth in real time. Since becoming famous overnight as a teenager with her 2011 viral smash “Friday,” the Los Angeles singer has spent nearly a decade proving she’s more than a novelty. If her 2023 debut album, *Let Her Burn*, was an untamed exploration of sound, *SALVATION* is where she sharpens her vision. The EP’s title came to Black on a subway ride in London, sparking a fascination with salvation—not just as a religious concept, but as a personal reckoning. “*SALVATION* is based around this idea of letting some of the less-safe, less-poised, less-sweet versions of myself into my world,” she tells Apple Music. She amplifies, and sometimes even embraces, those once-buried versions of herself with newfound fearlessness, declaring on the title track, “I love being disgusting,” before a defiant retort: “I don’t need you to save me/I already saved myself.” Leaning into Black’s self-described “unhinged” instincts also unlocked bolder production choices, from layering a perky chorus over walloping techno on “Sugar Water Cyanide” to the whip-cracking, laser-strobing rave of “TRUST!” Yet, for all its bravado, *SALVATION* also demands a deeper vulnerability. “Tears in My Pocket” finds intimacy in fragility, while “Do You Even Think About Me?” digs into unresolved heartbreak. Where the latter lingers in longing, “Twist the Knife” bites back, its sweeping orchestration fueling Black at her most vengeful and dramatic. “As I was letting these more dangerous parts of myself be shown, it almost felt like a protective mechanism,” she says. “Because if I make it larger than it is, it feels less naked.” Read on as Black breaks down *SALVATION*’s core tracks. **“Salvation”** “It felt really energizing to explore this really sexy, really unafraid, very direct version of myself that I hadn’t before. The song is all about taking ownership of the version of yourself you are, regardless of whether anybody else understands. I like juxtaposition. There’s a bit of rapping happening—that, against a super melodic, ultra-harmonized chorus that feels to-the-bones of the pop that I grew up with in the mid-2010s, was really nostalgic for me. It felt right, given it’s basically a song about being gay as fuck.” **“TRUST!”** “‘TRUST!’ felt daring. It felt like the least seriously I had ever taken myself. Genuinely, if I had known three years ago that I would have a song where the chorus is, ‘Ooh, la la, get me going like ga ga ga,’ I would’ve been so afraid that people would’ve gone, ‘Is this bitch fucking stupid? She thinks she can do “Friday” and then do this, and we’re going to treat it seriously?’ That felt like a moment of freedom where there was something really exciting and invigorating. It felt like a banger instantly.” **“Sugar Water Cyanide”** “I forget what \[co-writers Jesse Saint John, Nightfeelings\] and I were listening to or how we landed on the idea, but it was the first time in a while that I had started writing a song without a lot of prior thought around it. I wanted to make something that felt really visceral, and really sexy, and really fun. I knew that I wanted to take a big risk sonically that day. We landed on this juxtaposition of this very sugary-sweet verse with this truly deathly chorus. It felt like the most emblematic version of me I could put in a song. Lyrically, it felt so fun to create an energy that wasn’t the story of meeting someone or an experience. It was just about a feeling and trying to put words to that in the most Rebecca way possible.” **“Tears in My Pocket”** “‘Tears’ felt like such an informative first song for the rest of the project. Something else I wanted to explore was minimalism and space and silence in songs. It was the first time I felt like I had successfully done that without losing energy, because I didn’t want \[this project\] to be soft. I wanted to create something bright and in your face, and that has the same level of impact—maybe even more—as a song that has a thousand elements of production. This was probably the first time I left a session on the day with an almost-finished song. That was also a big practice for me, learning not to touch whatever we first landed on.”
SALVATION's songs careen and rattle towards different moods and energies, with Rebecca Black using eccentricity as a prop instead of a perk.