It’s been an entire presidential term since the last time Allie X released an album. The record in question, Cape God, came at an all too apropos moment in the culture: the era of lockdowns. As though intuiting the arrival of an “at-home glaze,” Allie X (real name: Alexandra Ashley Hughes) had taken inspiration from Steven Okazaki’s 2015 documentary Heroin: Cape Cod, USA for the Cape God universe. But if Cape God was all about the inevitable decay of one’s drug-induced malaise, Girl With No Face seems to capture the apex of a drug high before the crash. That moment just after a snort in the bathroom of some dark, debauched club. Alas, since clubs aren’t really all that dark and debauched anymore, Allie X has naturally seen fit to retreat into the past, during one of the inarguable best times for club culture: the 80s.
To set the mood of the record and bring her listeners into this new sonic landscape she’s established, Allie X appropriately commences with “Weird World.” Unsurprisingly, X remarked that she began working on this song during the pandemic, a time for many people (especially white people) when the proverbial “mask” was peeled back on just about everything to reveal a very scary face of things indeed. As for the mask-centric cover art, which features Allie X’s exterior mask cracked down the center, it speaks to the chanteuse’s sentiment, “I feel like there was a sort of death that happened, like an erasure of maybe previous identities, and rather than emerging with a fully-formed new identity, I feel like I’m still in progress, I’m figuring it out. I like the idea that masks are flexible in that way. They’re a protection.” In addition to being a way to conceal—because, sometimes, concealment is protection. But there is often no protection from this world that is so weird, as Allie X describes it, opening the song with the verse, “Oh, the light shines through the linen/Der morgen beginnt singen/I don’t want to dream anymore/Oh, they tell me that I’m stubborn/Treffe meine wahl im zorn/I don’t want to dream anymore.” The German portion meaning, “The morning begins singing/Make my choice in anger.” Something that’s difficult not to do when we live in a world where the choice is between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. And yet, Allie X commented on the freedom of ceasing to pretend the world is anything other than a totally fucked-up place, which is why, in turn, there are so many fucked-up people in it—mirror reflections of the system that upholds the globe (while simultaneously pushing it toward collapse). As Allie X put it, “The ‘weird world’ is this idea of seeing things as they actually are, and how that can actually be an empowering moment, even though it’s a sad moment.”
And, because it’s a kind of sadness that many don’t want to experience, they prefer to remain in denial, insisting the world isn’t “weird” at all. So it is that Allie X sings in the chorus, “I know nobody wants to hear this, but/I live in a weird world/Yeah, it’s sad but it’s true/Maybe you can’t see it/But you live in one too/I used to be a dream girl/But the world interfered/At least now I know why/Now I know why/Now I know I’m weird.” And that’s because, that’s right, the world is. The uptempo, synth-drenched rhythms change tack slightly on the record’s namesake, “Girl With No Face,” which features a more OMD meets Kraftwerk tinge (there are definitely notes of OMD’s “Messages” as Allie X starts off with her “ooo-ooo-ooos”). With the album’s overall hints of early Madonna (we’re talking the self-titled debut), perhaps it’s only right that Allie X should unwittingly (?) make an esoteric reference to Madonna’s character in Dick Tracy: No Face a.k.a. “The Blank.” That is, when she wasn’t Breathless Mahoney. The song and album title also feel like a clear nod to Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without A Face,” that song title itself taken from the 1960 French horror movie of the same name. Allie X’s sonic tones on the record do mirror some of what’s in that particular Idol single, but “Girl With No Face” is more sonically erratic than that, with the synths becoming screeching and violent around the one-minute, fifty-three-second mark as Allie X sings, “She has no friends/Up on the catwalk/And she is sharp/So shut your talk-talk/If you behave you get to play/But don’t be greedy, she can spot a fake.” Which is probably easier for Allie X to do in her current home of Los Angeles. A town that, in many ways, seemed to embrace the post-punk and new wave movements in music and fashion with more gusto than its rival city of New York.
But neither of these were the real muse behind the sound of Girl With No Face, as Allie X explained that the UK music scene during this period was one of the key influences on the record. She also added, “The movement I’m talking about, punk to post-punk, really did happen in the UK. Some would argue New York City, but that doesn’t interest me as much.” Thank fucking god someone has some sense about not being that interested in NYC. Because, as she said, she can spot the fakes—and there’s nothing faker than NYC new wave. It was all about that UK shit. Indeed, Allie X noted of getting in touch with her British roots again, “My dad is from the UK. He’s from Coventry. As a kid, I went there a lot and always felt this real connection to my uncles, aunts and cousins over there. I’ve always been the kid that would get made fun of for being weird, and going there, I felt like they all understood me and we had the same sense of humor and I really belonged… I’ve rekindled my love and connection for the UK as I’ve made this [record] and reconnected with a lot of my family whom I hadn’t seen in so long.”
Being that “Girl With No Face” is something like the “thesis” of the album, the true jumping-off point for the concept, it makes sense that Allie X would say of this “alter ego,” of sorts, “She’s my invisible muse—my cunty muse!” And cunty she is, if one is to go by the warning, “Torment the girl, she can ruin your world/Don’t get in her way.” The attitude of the girl with no face is perhaps so pronounced because one can project whatever they want onto her, and usually, expressionless women are presumed to be bitches anyway (perhaps why “bitchy” Madonna was cast as No Face…apart from having an “in” with the director). There’s even a dash of Edwyn Collins’ only signature, “A Girl Like You,” when Allie X declares, “Say, ‘I never met a girl like you,’” adding in the outro, “I never met a girl like you/Like you/I’m the girl with no face/And you never need a face.” Not when no one’s really looking at anybody anyway. And, as the next song indicates, nor do you really need any tits.
As the third single from the album, “Off With Her Tits” (a phrase one could easily envision a different kind of queen shouting in a fit of rage) brings with it a tempo that becomes more straightforwardly upbeat again. And one would have to be “upbeat” to sneak in the fear-inducing lyrics, “Off with her tits/I gotta fix/This one little bit/Or l’ll throw a fit/Now off with her tits.” Although Allie X preferred to keep it less direct with regard to what the song is about, it can easily serve a dual interpretation. On the one hand, it’s clearly about a woman’s tits getting in the way of her being “taken seriously,” instead appraised for her body rather than her wit (i.e., “Go take the piss/I’m flat with a wit/Not soft full of shit/Now off with her tits”). On the other (and considering Allie X’s fanbase), it feels like it can directly address some of the transgender dysphoria that can occur when one doesn’t identify with the body of a woman. The fact that even women weigh in on other women’s tits with a misogynistic viewpoint plays into the verse, “Then I called the doctor/Said, ‘Miss what can you do?’/She told me she’d cut them off/I said, ‘Sign me up for June’/I went to the teller/Took out 10K in cash/She said, ‘Bitch are you joking? I wish I had that rack.’” Not Allie X, who wants to be valued for her intellect before her body. Luckily for her, gay men can appreciate both.
And speaking of gays, the following track is dedicated to a particular couple that came to see a show of hers at the Bowery Ballroom in 2018: “John and Jonathan.” Amused by the similarity of their names when they introduced themselves after the concert, Allie X remarked that she might write a song about them one day. Of course, John and Jonathan thought, “Yeah, right.” But, lo and behold, the inspiration did hit a few years later. And to the overt tune of Kraftwerk’s 1978 single, “The Model.” Infused with just a touch more disco flair as Allie X paints the picture, “John and Jonathan are on the town/John and Jonathan, they go up, they go down/At the Bowery, in line they wait/They will stay all night then wake at eight.” Although it seems to initially be a frothy rumination on two “cosmopolitan” gay men, Allie X soon makes it an interior reflection about the weirdness of fame as she asks, “But how will I know if they care for me?/Do I believe what they say?/When I’m on stage they all cheer for me/I must soak up the praise/And save it for a rainy day/Dear John and Jonathan/Who am I to you?” That last line touching on the inherently parasocial nature between fan and star. Except that, in John and Jonathan’s case, at least Allie X actually does know who they are.
As for whether or not “Galina” still knows who Allie X is, well, that’s less apparent. And for those few who thought track five on Girl With No Face was a misspelling of the Italian word for “hen,” they might be either relieved or disappointed to learn that it’s actually about a Russian woman named Galina who worked at the naturopathic clinic in Toronto where Allie X would seek some alleviation for the eczema on her inner elbows. Per Allie X, Galina, for many years, “made this cream in her kitchen that worked better than steroids. She would always say, ‘It cost me more to make this than I’m charging you. I get this man in the Swiss Alps to gather these herbs and I make you this cream.’ She was pretty old, so I always worried: ‘What happens when Galina retires? It’s not like this is some patented product.’ So sure enough, in the summer of 2022, I returned to the clinic, and I was like, ‘Could I place an order for the cream from Galina?’ And the lady was like, ‘Oh, Galina has retired.’ And I was like, ‘What!?! Did she tell anyone the recipe?‘ And she was like, ‘No, she won’t tell. There’s nothing we can do—Galina has lost her memory.’” Thus, in the words of Joni Mitchell, “Don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” What’s more, something about that story smacks of how so many things get lost when one generation starts to die out. Of course, Allie X, being an L.A. Lady now, renders the deep message with a tinge more shallowness in the jaunty tune that goes, “Galina, wake up I’m running out of luck/And I get so ugly without you/Now, open your eyes/Help me make it through the night/Galina, wake up Galina, wake up/Know you don’t give a fuck/Fear, you’ll take the answers to your gravе/You could open your eyes/Hеlp me make it through the night/Galina, please, wake up.”
Allie X’s urgent need for Galina back in her life not because she actually cares all that much about her as a person, but because she needs her “goods” to look her best acknowledges the generally transactional nature between human beings (which has only worsened in the years since the 1980s, the decade Allie X is communing with). Her concern for her own appearance rather than Galina’s well-being further manifests in the lines, “My hand’s turnin’ dry and red/She keeps sleepin’ in her bed/My face crackin’ in the light/Her lips part, the tiniest smile.”
Reiterating the Kraftwerk influence on the record, the following track, “Hardware Software,” correlates easily to Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” (and the entire Computer World album). To boot, Allie X’s construction of the song is very akin to the Kraftwerk style in that it leans heavily on the music itself, with only two verses, the latter of which includes, “My hardware is getting too fast/I need to slow down, honey, wanna make it last/And my software is kicking me in the gut/It’s gonna get me soft like a pillow top/I wanna line my bed with a mountain of debt/I wanna earn my face on the internet/I wanna kill, kill, kill ‘til my world is dead/And I can’t stop thinking ‘bout all of that.” Needless to say, Allie X’s lyrics are slightly more sex- and violence-drenched. Ah, and talking of violence, the track that follows is the New Order-y (“Blue Monday,” of course) “Black Eye.” Though the opening gives a dash of Kilo’s “Cocaine” (recently sampled in Beyoncé’s “America Has A Problem”), it’s really all about the “Blue Monday” feels for the majority of the song, with Allie X addressing she’s a bit of a masochist when it comes to rolling with life’s punches, so to speak (hence, the black eye metaphor). Although some might initially be quick to accuse this of being some sort of anti-woke, “he hit me and it felt like a kiss” song, it is, instead, very much on-brand for the message of the album, which is to never let other people (and the hardships they can so often cause you) get in your way or stop you from achieving your dreams and goals. Thus, Allie X gives herself the pep talk, of sorts, “Oh, hit me, hit me with that super pain/‘Cause a hit feels like I’m dancin’ in the rain/Gimme that beat/There’s no need to cry, it’s just a black eye, yeah/Hit me, hit me with that super bass (Nicki Minaj would tend to agree)/‘Cause I want tonight to slap me in the face/Gimme that beat/There’s no need to cry, it’s just a black eye, yeah.”
The accompanying video, directed by none other than Allie X (which is in keeping with the fact that she also produced the entire Girl With No Face album), offers the surreal, visceral visuals one would expect of such a song, without hitting the viewer over the head (violence pun intended) with the actual image of Allie X being punched in the eye. But for those who have never slept on Allie X’s brilliance, this is no surprise. For those who have, she brings listeners the tongue-in-cheek “You Slept On Me.” Sonically, it pays clear homage to Michael Sembello’s Flashdance staple, “Maniac.” But lyrically, the best way to describe it is: Sparks and Charli XCX birthed a song together and the result was, “I held my tonguе for about long enough/It’s about damn time that I spoke up/I’m an icon, honey, this isn’t a chore/And I need to make money so give me yours/You missed my debut then my renaissance/You missed my late Romantic Helvetica fonts/Now I’m a modern bitch and I’m getting tough/Better make it up, kids, enough’s enough/Oh, what a shame/It’s clear to see/You’ve been so dumb sleeping on me.” Allie X continues to unleash the “cunty muse” she was referring to vis-à-vis her Girl With No Face persona by concluding, “You’ve been eating Krispy Kreme/You’ve been praising Paula Deen/There’s no point trying to disagree/Just get in line, you tired queen/Yeah, yeah.” Ah, the dangerous risk Allie X took by “insulting” her primary fanbase.
Taking us out of the 80s for a moment to channel a Labrinth-esque vocal intro, Allie X then dips right back into the decade with the “goth pop” (her words) tone of “Saddest Smile.” And, of all the songs on Girl With No Face, this is the one that perhaps most closely encapsulates a key “mood board” she used as inspiration for the “feel” of the album: Uli Edel’s Christiane F. (side note: that means Madonna is even more roundaboutly embedded in this project via the fact that Edel also directed Body of Evidence). The languor and theme of the song exists almost as though in deliberate negation of what Ariana Grande and MARINA talk about on “fake smile” and “Highly Emotional People,” respectively, for Allie X instead insists that things are as they always were, and we must suppress our emotions in order to be even vaguely accepted in society. Ergo, “When I’m sad, I don’t cry/I put on my saddest smile” and “No one wants to see you soften/So we have to harden ’til we can turn to dust.” A bleak and honest thought, one put far more bluntly than Allie X euphemistically saying this world is fucked on the opening track, “Weird World.”
The tempo picks up again on the defiant “Staying Power,” an anthem of divergence from the norm. It’s repetitive sound seems designed to highlight Allie X’s insistence, “I don’t sing for straight men ’cause they just ruin the world/Wanna be good daughter but I pushed my mom away/Wanna be good patient but my doctor makes me pay/Wanna save the baby but I threw away the bath/My body’s weak, my mind is bleak, there’s one thing that I have/Staying power, I’ve got the power/The world can hurt me, I don’t mind.” This, too, channels her sentiments on “Black Eye,” which is essentially Jennifer Love Hewitt saying, “What are you waiting for? Huh?! What are you waiting for?!” in song form. It’s a taunt and a challenge to the world, the universe to throw its worst at Allie X because 1) she can take it and 2) she’s got, that’s right, staying power.
This jubilant declaration of strength (however sardonic) persists on the album’s finale, “Truly Dreams.” And this song, too, is a blender of nods to 80s signatures, an explosion of pastiche. One that can best be characterized as: Siouxsie Sioux’s “Hong Kong Garden” sound with a dash of the way Debbie Harry chants “Dreamin’” on Blondies’s song of the same name and, of course, a lilt that majorly channels Kate Bush. Whatever homage the listener can hear in it, the most important takeaway is her message in the chorus: “I keep dreaming/And if it’s not enough then/I’ll just keep my hopes and dreaming/With all my might, just listen/Truly dreams never die/They never die/(Never die, baby, can never die).” Because the real death in this life is when one gives up on their dreams. The body’s expiration after that is just incidental. And even if one feels as unseen, as invisible as the Girl With No Face, it doesn’t mean they can’t still serve cunt just like Allie X’s alter ego (and Breathless Mahoney as “The Blank”).
