This long-awaited debut album arrives the best part of a decade after the viral Colors session that first introduced Jess Smyth’s name under the umbrella of Biig Piig. In the interim, the Cork-born singer has tested the stylistic waters. Whether venturing into drum’n’bass on 2020’s Switch, funk-pop on Feels Right or the fetish aesthetic of 2021’s slinking Lavender, however, her distinctive, intimate vocals – sung in a mix of English and Spanish (she spent most of her preteen years in Málaga) – have been the red thread.
In the run-up to 11:11, Smyth has spoken of the influence of club culture. Yet, with its pared-back stylings – delicate and hyperpop-adjacent on Ponytail; whispered on the nocturnal pulse of Cynical – the sense is often of someone appraising from the edges rather than throwing themselves all-in to the action. Decimal is an exception – a bilingual banger with a prowling strut; Stay Home is a hazy jam that sounds like a dawn walk back from the afterparty; while Brighter Day ends the album with a soothing trip-hop balm. It’s perhaps when Biig Piig has left the club that she sounds most at home.
