The Weekly Coos

When Ashnikko dropped her mixtape Demidevil in 2021, I stood immediately enthralled by her artistic aesthetic, both visually and musically, weaving together these unique pop productions with fiery raps and melodic performance through sheer independence and empowerment. Part of her stylistic sense of approach to writing got heightened with her alter-ego, this devilish side that continued to explore lossless and loose autonomy, except that time, the journey was much more fun. With her debut album, 2023’s WEEDKILLER, she gets a little personal while retaining her sense of self through unique allusions and metaphors that connect to tell a larger story, as opposed to the fun had on Demidevil. The sexual energy is more scripted and determined, and the boastful character building. It continues to move with ferocity as sounds shift, with the transitions between them flowing smoothly; it’s easy to get lost in the journey as it loops, and you start anew. In many ways, it reminded me of Rina Sawayama’s debut album, where it stuck to its guns with one genre, instead blending all these unique sounds into pop and creating new anthemic productions that are more than memorable. Unfortunately, some pacing issues mark some disappointment, like, with Demidevil, parts come and go quickly, but it’s worth the listen.

From the beginning, Ashnikko’s angsty, and further along, she’s creative, pensive, and fierce, with that energy flowing through the music beautifully, hypnotizing you as you go through these different sounds that highlight her artistry. She’s not some homogenized pop artist, which might be hard to get into for some, as the closest you get to a pure pop song is with “Worms.” With WEEDKILLERS, one minute, you find yourself with hyper-pop erotica in “Don’t Look At It,” the next, it’s the Trap-Rock and slightly Electro-Clash “Cheerleader,” which offers fantastic commentary on the popularity-based caste system within specific demographics, like in High School, where it’s reflective in Movie/TV or sometimes in reality. She isn’t always direct with her words, painting pictures with her emotions and letting them all breathe through. The poignancy of the content and themes on the songs of WEEDKILLER reflect higher than those on Demidevil, as the writing improves in construction and overall delivery. It sometimes makes up for the modestly weaker bits like the choral performance on “Moonlight Magic.”

The writing is more emphatic, though not all songs have the visceral storytelling that will have you breaking apart the layers, as some create impact with heightened and focused emotions, like with the metal/hard-rock tracks “You Make Me Sick” and “Chokehold Cherry Python.” Contrasts of each other, the former is more glaring and direct, taking stabs at this person who did Ashnikko wrong, while the latter continues to expand on the themes and tones of the nu-metal/emo-pop flavored “Worm,” which, as she noted to Apple Music, is “trying to paint this post-apocalyptic showdown of guns blazing, glowing sword coming out of my back, wielding it and screaming. Just smiling like a little demon as I slice heads off, laughing and dancing.” Each paints a different aspect of her craft and excels in doing so. Her writing is ever-shifting, like detailing an event in her imaginary world in the eponymous track, “Weedkiller,” or getting direct and aggressive with her anger about the overturning of Roe V. Wade on “Possession of a Weapon,” or sexual worship on “Super Soaker.” And then there’s the remarkably relative and potent “Miss Nectarine.”

Ashnikko grew up in a hyper-conservative household, making her adolescence confusing and frightening due to her feelings without much access to understanding or talking about them. It’s something she has noted in past songs, though here, it comes with more gravitas and emotion in the potent “Miss Nectarine,” where Ashnikko talks about that confusion and distress, so as she would put it, “I was just this little child, struggling with these feelings, and I remember my mom being really confused as to why I was so mad at my friend for dating boys. We were from rural North Carolina where there were no out queer people, so she just didn’t even know what that looked like. And neither did I.” We hear Ashnikko getting personal and bringing depth to her character, as there are few times we hear Ashnikko channeling her alter-ego. It hits harder with the writing of the second verse, where she raps, “Short shorts and stolen liquor/There’s nothin’ I wouldn’t give her/Cut my heart out for a kiss, she tastes like lemonade/I’m the one who took the fall/Your parents screamed and blamed it on me/Sent you off and prayed my gay away that Sunday.” Here, the writing is remarkable and helps define her artistry more.

It all gets rounded by the two features and production, the latter of which gets spearheaded by Slinger, who, alongside his co-producers, creates this tangential shift that keeps you engaged through the ups and downs. Ups like the intense collision of sounds on “Want It All,” or the minimalist approach with the percussion – along with Daniela Lalita’s sultry flow – on “Super Soaker,” or the acoustics – and Ethel Cain’s sobering cadence that balances emotions – on “Dying Star,” and downs like the chorus section of “Moonlight Magic” and the more rudimentary and okay opener “World Eater.” Fortunately, there are more ups than downs, but one more down comes with its pacing. I’m not one to harp on an album’s length, as these are artistic choices made to deliver their story, but that doesn’t negate potential pacing. With WEEDKILLER, it felt swift, sometimes never letting a song fully breathe before hitting you with something different. It’s apparent within the middle, in a run between “Super Soaker” and “Chokehold Cherry Python,” where the softening blows are ones you’d need to return to individually to get the full grasp; when you do, it becomes such a rewarding experience.

WEEDKILLER is one fun romp that highlights Ashnikko’s strengths while getting to hear new sides of her. It’s a memorable journey, albeit brief, but its use of sounds to deliver something highly impactful is awe-inducing. There isn’t much more I can say to try and sell this to you, as the sound can be a niche for some demographics, but if you’re a fan of pop music, this is a must-listen, even if it’s to set you up for an artist with a bright future.