ADÉLA – PRIMA (Album Review)

ADÉLA has cemented her main pop girl status with PRIMA.

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TOP 5

5. Hitachi

In “Hitachi,” Adéla misses intimacy with her partner, which used to be an important part of their relationship. She no longer feels desired, and the lack of physical intimacy parallels the lack of emotional intimacy she feels with her partner. She has resorted to mimicking this by herself with her Hitachi, and compares the toy to her partner: “You used to wanna turn me on like my Hitachi does.”

I think that it’s definitely a deliberate choice to use the Hitachi in the lyrics. Hitachis were initially created for something other than the purpose that Adéla is using hers for—though her method is the most famous use nowadays—but this makes it feel almost as though she didn’t need this before and she’s just using what she had to get the job done since her partner won’t. “Hitachi” also means “rising sun” in Japanese, which adds a poetic element to the lyrics.

4. Boys

“Boys” is a playful dance-pop track that deals with Adéla’s experience at a club with her friends where she’s receiving both wanted and unwanted attention. The verses and choruses are broken up by conversation where she’s speaking to KATSEYE’s Lara Raj as though they’re in the ladies’ room at the club. The production occasionally borders on dark pop, but within a dance framework.

I love the humor in this track. She compares male attention to a vending machine and laughs at these men with Lara. There’s something almost Sabrina Carpenter-like with this track, but with a darker edge to the production and style. It’s the playful objectification of male attention and mockery of the ridiculousness of these men’s behaviors that make this track stand out to me. It manages to call out these objectifying and misogynistic behaviors while also being fun, silly, and a bit fierce.

3. Ain’t In LA

“Ain’t In LA” is about all of the talented women and girls in “unknown cities,” saying that the idea that Los Angeles has a monopoly on beauty and talent isn’t true. She references her own family early on. As a child, Adéla’s mother shared her room with her siblings, and the walls were covered in smuggled posters since communist Czechoslovakia didn’t allow Western content.

This song is a lovely way to end the album. Adéla is very proud of her Slovak heritage, and she makes that clear throughout, and I love the way she brings that around to any listener who isn’t from Los Angeles or the West in general. Adéla isn’t some untouchable figure—she’s a girl from an unknown city whose dream came true in a way she hadn’t expected.

2. Starving Artist

“Starving Artist” is a lot of fun. Adéla has broken up with the person she’d been with earlier in the album and is now pursuing her ex, a “starving artist” who is struggling financially. The way she’s clearly into this guy while also taking joking jabs at him.

The production is the best part of this song, hands down. It’s a dance-pop banger with dark pop tendencies, similar to “Boys,” but more so. The outro slows everything down, the bass gets gnarlier, and it becomes more percussion-forward. The harmonies throughout are simple but sound great. The track is a great mix of humor and badassery.

1. KGB

In “KGB,” Adéla compares herself to a spy, infiltrating the American entertainment industry. “KGB” stands for “Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti,” or “Committee for State Security” in Russian. Adéla is from Slovakia, and she has said that the already-fallen Soviet Union’s influence was still felt there as she grew up.

The song details how much work it has taken from such a young age to make it in the American music industry. Adéla said that she began learning English on her own time at eight years old because she wanted to be a star fluent in that language. At eighteen, she moved to the United States to participate in Dream Academy, which had been framed as a trainee program—similar to K-pop—to make a “global girl group.” Adéla was eliminated in the first round once it became a survival show, and did not end up in the group that became KATSEYE, but honestly, after this album, I think that was for the best. Adéla is fantastic as a solo artist.

SONG BY SONG RATING

KGB (5/5)

Nicole Kidman (4/5)

I’m The Man (4/5)

Boys (4.5/5)

Red Bottoms (4.5/5)

Hitachi (4.5/5)

Fantasize (4.5/5)

Starving Artist (5/5)

Marijuana (4/5)

Therapy (4.5/5)

Ain’t In LA (4.5/5)

RGM RATING

(B+)

PRIMA is a great debut for ADÉLA. It showcases a lot of personality and humor while also going into important topics, such as female exploitation and issues of representation. Her journey has been very unique—growing up in Slovakia, moving to the US as a teenager to enter a girl group trainee program that turned into a survival show, being eliminated, getting hated on by a bunch of fans of the show, and becoming a successful solo act—and there’s a lot to sing about here. It’s not all written about, but you can get a sense of her perspective in songs like “KGB,” “Ain’t In LA,” and “Therapy.”

The production of this album is a fun mix between pop, dance-pop, hyperpop, and the occasional moment of dark pop. It’s familiar while still being distinctive. It’s both an impressive debut album and a great place to jump off from into future endeavors. ADÉLA has a clear, distinctive artistic voice, and it will only be further individualized as she goes on. I look forward to what comes next from her, and am excited by the prospect of any and every performance video of these songs. She’s a new prima pop girl with prima ballerina training, after all.