To transcend into a pop star, Amanda Koci is a name that just wouldn’t do. Nor would a non-signature haircut. Ergo, we now have Ava Max of the half-bob, half-long and flowing haircut. Despite being just another girl from Milwaukee, Max was determined to stand out (even if it meant being compared to Lady Gaga). Evidently, that took a bit of a minute, for, at twenty-six and having only just now released a debut album, Max is rather “old” for a pop star. Even so, it seemed that she was always destined to be differentiated from the basics of Wisconsin, at least by sheer virtue of being Albanian. Or rather, of the descent. Her parents’ (Andrea and Paul) flight from the country in 1991 after the fall of communism (in turn, signaling the free reign of the other extreme: capitalism) led them to America, where Max appeared fated to fulfill their dream of representing the ideals that were always out of her parents’ reach as a result of the oppressive system of their time.
With this in mind, both Andrea and Paul were musical, with the former being a trained opera singer and the latter being a piano player, and it seemed only natural that they should impart their gifts onto their daughter–the “American girl” they created. As such, auditions for Radio Disney in malls of Virginia abounded, followed by a foray into giving Los Angeles a chance before moving to South Carolina while Max could still enjoy some of her teen years before being entirely corrupted by American life. And the “dream” of fame and fortune that inherently comes with it. Indeed, Max’s parents are the very embodiment of why people immigrate to America, giving their progeny “the chance” and “opportunity” they could never have.
Max, proud of her Albanian roots, must surely be aware of this, and it seems to have colored the motif of her first album, Heaven & Hell, in terms of that push and pull between a pure (non-American) self and a diabolical one (the version that gives in entirely to all the capitalist trappings of “the American dream”). Having laid the groundwork for the theme with the breadcrumbs of releases that began in 2018, “Sweet But Psycho,” her first major single and pièce de résistance, is saved for last–the crowning jewel on the “Hell” side of things. And yes, there’s an attempt at dividing the record into “Heaven” and “Hell” the way Marina did with Love + Fear.
So it is that we begin with the ethereal dreampop of “H.E.A.V.E.N.” With its dramatic harp intro, Max’s vocals are complemented by chorus-like “ahhhs” that lend a neo-monastic feel to it. Produced by Cirkut, the first dude to make Max believe there were creative possibilities in pop music, Max’s tone is serene and angelic, lulling us into her world of cirrus clouds and cherubs. The still calmness transitions into the drama-laden rhythms of “Kings & Queens,” a subtle nod to the gods that might rule over the heavens she was referring to before. Except in this instance, Max speculates that, just as the case is with government, heaven (and any kingdom, really) would be better off ruled by queens as she sings, “If all of the kings had their queens on the throne/We would pop champagne and raise a toast.” Plus, as Max points out, “In chess, the king can move one space at a time/But queens are free to go wherever they like”–thus, why can’t it be the same in real life?
Max then shifts to a more vulnerable side with “Naked.” It’s a generic title with a fittingly generic message, and one that seems to corroborate that she did, in fact, listen to a lot of 90s Mariah Carey, including “Vision of Love” on repeat, otherwise how could she be so adept at executing such cheesy lyrics as, “Well, you can take off all my clothes and never see me naked/See me for real/If you don’t know my heart/You’re never gonna break it.” Like Blondie and Madonna before her with “Call Me” and “Express Yourself,” Max also knows the value of incorporating sheets into her narrative for added evocative appeal, urging, “Wrap me in designer sheets and trace along this frame/Ask me why they used to say that trouble was my name/I’ve been playin’ a fool since I stepped into the game/Tell me I’m like Heaven, take the good Lord’s name in vain.” Again with the Heaven allusions. It’s a wonder she didn’t cover the Bryan Adams song of the same name like DJ Sammy did back in 2001–the era Max is clearly her most comfortable in, as evidenced by the entire sonic composition of the record.
“Tattoo” (not to be confused with t.A.T.u.) is just such an example, infused with a touch of 80s synthpop to play up the saccharine nature of sentiments like, “I’m like a tattoo that’s over your heart/’Cause once I put this love on you, it never comes off.” Max thusly displays the same teen girl diary vibe that Britney and Christina were parading on their first albums as well. To that point, the scandalized, Nokia-speak title that is “OMG What’s Happening” offers plenty in the way of adolescent posturing as Max admits, “Writing in my journal ’bout you/Wonder if it’s over, I ain’t getting closer.” Wielding God for maximum effect on the Heaven side of the record, Max takes the Lord’s name in vain as she rues falling for someone having never previously known just how intense the feeling of love could be.
The desperation continues on “Call Me Tonight”–even if only in tone. For once again Max exhibits the “can’t hurt me if you don’t really know me” tone of “Naked” as she declares, “Break, break your heart in the mornin’, don’t you worry/And I’ll fly, fly away before it’s love, before you’ve boarded/Can’t be grieving, know I’m always leaving/When the sun is beating, I beat it.” With the distinction of being co-written by Tove Lo (credited here with her Christian name of Ebba Tove Nilsson), it does smack of something that would have been included on her last album, Sunshine Kitty.
Commencing with church bells, the gossamer texture of “Born to the Night” interpolates Peter Schilling’s 1983 hit “Major Tom (Coming Home)” for a melodic and lulling effect. As the song that firmly ingratiates toward the Hell side of Max’s yin and yang conceptualization (which goes hand in hand–or strand in strand–with her hairstyle), Max discusses her vampiric, sinister nature as a creature of the night, crooning, “I’ve been waiting until midnight/Slowly dying since the sunrise/’Cause I, I was born, I was born to the night/In the night, in the night, I survive/All the poison, the pleasure, the highs.” Elsewhere, Max explores the idea of “going to Hell” as being part of what’s necessary to face one’s fears, asserting, “Just face my fears, makin’ friends with all my demons here/Now all my insecurities, they leave the atmosphere.”
That self-assurance seems to go out the window with “Torn” (called so because apparently Max didn’t get the memo that Natalie Imbruglia still has the monopoly on this title). Just as The Clash before her, Max struggles with the classic quandary of should I stay or should I go. Except, when she presents the issue, it pertains to being uncertain as to whether or not she ought to cut the cord with her lover. The slightest hint of ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” (therefore Madonna’s “Hung Up”) also creeps in thanks to the disco-inspired beat.
Her “torn”-ness between being naughty or nice intensifies on the next track, which gets right down to the heart of the Hell side of things with the title, “Take You To Hell.” The eerie, Halloween-tinged sound is reminiscent of “Tell Me It’s A Nightmare” from 2019’s Turn Off the Light. Because despite the Lady Gaga comparisons, Ava Max’s true competitor of the present is Kim Petras, who possesses a similar Malibu Barbie vibe, wrapped in the package of 00s bubblegum pop and frothy visuals to accompany.
Connie Franics may have once asked “Who’s Sorry Now?” but Max has seen fit to rephrase the question as “Who’s Laughing Now.” In that 1950s-era sense, the song naturally includes whistling and builds on what, ahem, Lady Gaga was saying already on “Telephone” with the lyrics, “I’m turnin’ off my phone like I’m leaving (bye)/Pushed me to the edge, now it’s over/Shuttin’ off the hate, gettin’ closure.” This time, instead of wielding the excuse of not getting service in the club as a means to avoid someone (therefore something), Max takes it further into the twenty-first century with the implication that all it takes to evade social media (a.k.a. hate) is to turn off one’s phone. The trouble is, actually keeping it off.
It surely can’t be a coincidence that “Belladonna” and “Rumors” are positioned right next to each other, in terms of one’s intent to draw Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac parallels. Embracing her “evil” side more than ever in Hell, Max shruggingly sings on “Belladonna,” “Sweet like a flower at the beginning/But nothing is ever the way that it seems/But I like it/I can’t deny it/Soon as I’m done, I just get up and leave/I swear I don’t do it intentionally/I can’t help it/A little selfish, oh.” It isn’t her fault if one gets drawn into the hypnotic powers of deadly nightshade (a.k.a. belladonna). On a side note, both Marina and Lana Del Rey have also used this notorious flower in their own songs–but of course Stevie will always be the OG, calling her debut solo album Bella Donna (for a dual meaning, thanks to the space between words). The following “Rumors” is jauntier in tone, and does not quite possess the same level of drama as what Lindsay Lohan did with a title like that in 2004, but still… it’s redolent enough.
Going a bit of the cheeseball Katy Perry route, “So Am I” posits that catch-22 platitude about everyone being different therefore it’s okay not to feel like you have to be the same in order to fit in. Yet if everyone is unique, de facto they’re all the same. But oh well, Max still insists, “Do you ever feel like a misfit?/Everything inside you is dark and twisted/Oh, but it’s okay to be different/‘Cause baby so am I.” Probably not going to do someone much good when the shit is getting kicked out of them, but it’s nice Ava believes she can make a contribution to someone’s mental well-being–which is kind of going against the thematic element of being “devilish” on the Hell side.
Max returns to her hardened heart persona, however, on “Salt”–sort of her version of Britney Spears’ “Stronger.” Affirming that she’s too strong and too moved on to bother with tears over some fuckboy who didn’t see her value, Max informs her ex, “I’m all out of salt, I’m not gonna cry/Won’t give you what you want/’Cause I look way too good tonight/I’m all out of salt, tears are running dry.” Playing on the saline content of tears, Max also alludes to no longer being “salty” over the loss of someone who cast her out (maybe out of Heaven–only for her to find she preferred Hell anyway).
To conclude the album, “Sweet But Psycho” caters to the best of both Heaven and Hell worlds, alluding to a girl who can be a little “schizophrenic” with her personality. But isn’t every girl in these crazy times where anything goes? What’s more, it’s so difficult to distinguish any fine line between fantasy and reality anymore–the representative tropes for Heaven and Hell. Though it certainly was easier to in the 00s, the time period Max is clearly paying homage to with this record.
