Self Esteem A Complicated Woman
Self Esteem's A Complicated Woman arrives as a dramatic, often glorious statement of performance and self-authorization that many critics call both cathartic and deliberately theatrical. Across 11 professional reviews the record earned a 74.09/100 consensus score, and reviewers consistently point to songs that turn personal confrontation into communal release. For readers searching for an A Complicated Woman review or wondering "is A Complicated Woman good," the critical consensus skews positive with notable caveats about occasional overreaching.
Critics agree the album thrives where stagecraft meets vulnerability: “Mother” and “69” recur as club-ready highlights, while “I Do And I Don’t Care” and “Cheers To Me” emerge as singalong, feminist anthems. Reviews from Clash, Beats Per Minute, The Independent and Record Collector praise the record's choral potency, theatrical ambition and vocal performance, celebrating moments of choir-backed rapture, disco-inflected catharsis and blunt, witty lyricism. At the same time Pitchfork, The Guardian and others note a loss of lyrical specificity and occasional maximalist production that buries nuance, so the strongest tracks stand out for retaining the sting and specificity of Prioritise Pleasure.
Taken together the critical consensus frames A Complicated Woman as an album of resilient contrasts - camp and sincerity, confessional monologue and club banger - that rewards repeat listens for its best songs. If you want the best songs on A Complicated Woman, critics repeatedly point to “Mother”, “69” and “I Do And I Don’t Care” as the record's decisive moments; whether the theatrical sweep occasionally overwhelms intimacy depends on how much weight you grant performance. Below, the individual reviews unpack those tensions in detail.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
I Do & I Don’t Care
1 mention
"from the hymnal synth opener I Do & I Don’t Care"— Record Collector
Mother
11 mentions
"the fuckery of men in love in between (‘Mother’)."— DIY Magazine
The Deep Blue OK
1 mention
"to the orchestral, tentatively peace-making closer The Deep Blue OK"— Record Collector
from the hymnal synth opener I Do & I Don’t Care
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
I Do And I Don't Care
Focus Is Power
Mother
The Curse
Logic, Bitch! (Outro by Sue Tompkins)
Cheers To Me
If Not Now, It's Soon
In Plain Sight
Lies (feat. Nadine Shah)
69
What Now
The Deep Blue Okay
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 12 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Self Esteem returns with A Complicated Woman, an album that feels born for the stage and packed with showstopping moments like “I Do And I Don’t Care” and “The Curse”. Vicky Greer writes with the same exuberant conviction she applies across the review, calling out the record's choral potency and stadium-ready catharsis while flagging where the studio recording sometimes trails the live spectacle. The result is a vital, theatrical pop record whose best tracks - notably “I Do And I Don’t Care” and “Cheers To Me” - double as feminist anthems and instant audience singalongs. Listening to A Complicated Woman feels like witnessing a performance that both entertains and equips, which is exactly the album's intention and achievement.
Key Points
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The best song, “I Do And I Don’t Care”, stands out for its choral power and moments that 'stop you in your tracks'.
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The album's core strengths are theatrical, feminist songwriting and live-ready anthems that mix humour, honesty and catharsis.
Themes
Critic's Take
Self Esteem's A Complicated Woman finds its best songs where theatricality meets singalong immediacy, with “Cheers To Me” and “I Do And I Don’t Care” standing out as rousing communal anthems. The reviewer praises how “Cheers To Me” becomes a destined anthem for powering through and how the fragile second half of “I Do And I Don’t Care” lifts to the rafters with strings and voices. Club-facing highlights like “Mother” and “69” show Taylor's strengths when she strips back to a driving beat, offering grimey and hedonistic relief amid the orchestral sweep. Overall the album's maximalist production often exhilarates but sometimes buries nuance, yet its best tracks still cut through as bold, singable statements of solidarity.
Key Points
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The best song, "Cheers To Me", is best because it crystallises Taylor's gift for communal, singalong anthems.
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The album's core strengths are its theatrical, communal production and powerful choruses, though maximalism sometimes overwhelms nuance.
Themes
Critic's Take
In a characteristically wry and slightly exasperated tone, Self Esteem on A Complicated Woman recycles the monologue trick of her breakthrough while rarely matching its sting, which makes the best tracks - notably “I Do And I Don’t Care” and “Lies” - the clearest moments of bite. The reviewer finds “I Do And I Don’t Care” to reprise the earlier, cathartic monologuing formula and praises the dehumanized thrash of “Lies” for its roiling drums and bluntness. Yet much of the album drifts into broad-brush feminist homilies and unconvincing sex-club pastiche, so the best songs stand out mainly because they still carry traces of the specificity that made Prioritise Pleasure sing.
Key Points
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The best song is strongest because it revives the monologue specificity that made her earlier work effective.
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The album’s core strengths are its moments of musical bite and performative camp, but it often slips into broad, generic feminist statements.
Themes
Critic's Take
Self Esteem’s A Complicated Woman stakes a claim for triumph rather than surrender, and the best tracks underline that shift. The review spotlights “I Do and I Don’t Care” as a defiant opener and “69” as the album’s energetic high point, while songs like “Focus Is Power” and “If Not Now, It’s Soon” supply stadium-sized hooks and urgent affirmation. Taylor’s voice moves from risqué to exhortative with nimble ease, which is why listeners asking “best tracks on A Complicated Woman” will constantly return to these highlights. The record feels more grounded than Prioritise Pleasure, and its best songs marry winning beats with unmistakable purpose.
Key Points
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“69” is the album’s energetic high point because of its rave-y beat, pop melody, and playful sexual lyrics.
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The album’s core strengths are Taylor’s exemplary vocals, winning beats, and ability to balance exhortation with risqué sensuality.
Themes
Critic's Take
Self Esteem's A Complicated Woman thrives when it tilts into contradiction, which is why the best tracks - “Mother” and “69” - register so strongly. Tom Kingsley writes with a measured, slightly wry clarity, noting how “Focus Is Power” sets the scene but ultimately feels safer than Taylor's most daring work. The critic praises moments of sonic oddness like the lounge-jazz outro of “The Deep Blue Okay” while celebrating Taylor's voice on “Logic, Bitch!” and “Cheers To Me”, arguing that those tracks repay repeat listens. Overall, the reviewer frames the album as more reticent than Prioritise Pleasure, yet still very good for its cohesion and vocal display.
Key Points
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The best songs, notably "Mother" and "69", stand out because they inject unexpected sonic aggression and memorability into an otherwise calmer record.
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The album's core strengths are Taylor’s vocal performances and witty, astute lyricism, delivered within a cohesive, more reticent pop framework.
Themes
Critic's Take
Self Esteem's A Complicated Woman is unabashedly theatrical, and the best songs - notably “I Do And I Don’t Care” and “Mother” - thrive on that stagey conviction. Helen Brown revels in the album's showy swings, praising how “I Do And I Don’t Care” arcs from yearning melody to steely spoken word and how “Mother” delivers a snarky, contemptuous growl over a raw beat. She flags glitterball pop bops like “Cheers To Me” and scornful pulses like “Lies” as strong hooks, even as the theatricality sometimes undercuts intimacy. The review positions these tracks as the album's best, where Taylor's voice and dramatic instincts most effectively turn self-analysis into potent pop.
Key Points
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The best song is the theatrical opener "I Do And I Don't Care" because its three-act structure and vocal theatrics anchor the album.
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The album's core strengths are bold theatricality, strong hooks, and Taylor's versatile voice that moves between sweetness and muttered cussing.
Themes
Critic's Take
Self Esteem approaches A Complicated Woman as a pop star wrestling with ambivalence, and the best songs - notably “69” and “Mother” - are where that conflict becomes electrifying rather than muddled. Alexis Petridis’s voice here is measured and slightly sardonic, noting how “69” marries distorted rave beats to a winningly explicit checklist and how “Mother” benefits from a grimy house pulse and a blistering dismissal of an ex. He praises the restraint where choirs are absent, arguing tracks like “Mother” and the Nadine Shah collaboration “Lies” gain power from not piling on massed vocals. Yet he remains clear-eyed about the album’s unevenness, suggesting the theatrical ambitions sometimes try a little too hard to rouse a mass singalong rather than clarify feeling.
Key Points
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The best song, '69', is best for its distorted rave beats and brazen, winningly explicit lyrics.
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The album’s core strength is its theatrical ambition and moments of genuine emotional clarity, especially where arrangements are restrained.
Themes
Critic's Take
Self Esteem's A Complicated Woman is at once theatrical and intimate, and the review pins its best tracks as the bruised celebration of “Cheers To Me”, the steely affirmation of “I Do And I Don’t Care” and the cinematic closer “The Deep Blue Okay”. Otis Robinson writes with a warm, admiring eye - noting how Taylor scrubs away prior industrial gloss to reveal a soulful manifesto - so queries about the best songs on A Complicated Woman land on those pieces for their combination of catharsis, choir-backed rapture and spoken-word certainty. The reviewer frames these moments as both communal and personal, claiming they pull listeners out of their core to breathe lighter and marking them as the record's most concentrated triumphs.
Key Points
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The best song is the opening affirmation “I Do And I Don’t Care” because it encapsulates the album's uncompromising movement and communal reassurance.
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The album's core strengths are theatrical, choir-backed soul and candid examinations of modern womanhood that blend catharsis with wry toughness.
Themes
Critic's Take
Self Esteem's A Complicated Woman keeps Rebecca Lucy Taylor in diagnostician mode, razor-tongued and emotionally frank, and the best tracks - “Mother” and “The Curse” - show why. The review savours the snap of lines like "I am not your therapist/You don’t pay me enough for this," and leans into the record's choral swells that shift between community and cloying. There's real relish for the electroclash aggro of “Lies” and the filthy list-song momentum of “69” as necessary tonal resets. Overall the critic frames the album as a successor to Prioritise Pleasure that trembles between self-laceration and self-preservation, making these songs the best tracks on A Complicated Woman for their savage clarity and dancefloor bite.
Key Points
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The best song is 'The Curse' for its brutal, quotable lines and emotional clarity.
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The album's core strengths are candid lyricism, dancefloor energy, and a balance of self-analysis and defiance.
Themes
Critic's Take
Rhys Morgan writes with amused clarity about Self Esteem's A Complicated Woman, naming “Mother”, “In Plain Sight” and “Lies” as the record's decisive moments. He frames the album as a tension between frank vulnerability and pop maximalism, noting how the ensemble vocals become the bellwether on “If Not Now, It's Soon” and celebrating the disco-inflected catharsis of “69”. The tone is wry and precise, admiring how Taylor flips sexual expectation into assertion and how songs like “Cheers To Me” and “Logic, Bitch!” sharpen her palette. This review points listeners seeking the best tracks on A Complicated Woman straight to those blows of clarity and bravado.
Key Points
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Mother is best because it captures emotional fatigue with sparse, striking production and is singled out as a must-listen.
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The album's core strengths are frank vulnerability set against pop maximalism, ensemble vocals, and cathartic, dance-inflected moments.
Themes
Re
Critic's Take
Self Esteem’s A Complicated Woman is full of delicious surprises, and the review rightly crowns “69” as the album’s striking club banger, breathy and irreverent. The critic singles out the hymnal synth opener “I Do & I Don’t Care”, the house-infused lyrical savagery of “Mother” and the bright, sweary pop of “Cheers To Me” as standout moments. There is consistent praise for the record’s range - from punky “Lies” to the orchestral closer “The Deep Blue OK” - all framed as part of a conceptual journey toward shaky self-acceptance. The tone remains admiring and precise, urging listeners not to let the bubblegum lightness obscure Taylor’s visionary talent.
Key Points
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The best song, “69”, is singled out as the album’s most striking and irreverent club banger.
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The album’s core strength is its surprising range, moving from confessional moments to house, pop, punk and orchestral textures toward shaky self-acceptance.