“Nicest Cocky”

Channeling the pulse and lurid atmosphere of an all-night after party, “Nicest Cocky,” the latest single from 20-year-old Catalan phenom Bad Gyal, sees the singer embodying a style she’s calling “sad dancehall.” On first take, sadness might not be the first emotion that registers, but masked in the track’s rumbling kick drums, snare snaps, and sexually-charged lyrics, lurks heartache, and a longing for something greater.

The song’s restless demeanor comes courtesy Chilean producer Paul Marmota, whose skeletal beat-programming and squeaky clean tones form the backbone of the track’s sound. But it’s the producer’s gloomy synths that really set the mood. Cutting through the silence like mile-high shards of glass, these echoing blasts are as menacing as they are gorgeous. Nothing in “Nicest Cocky,” however, hits quite as hard as Bad Gyal’s exquisitely Auto-Tuned vocals, which leave the singer’s voice resembling liquid metal. Using a mix of English, Spanish, and Jamaican patois, Bad Gyal’s delivery is at turns forceful and vulnerable—for every celebratory declaration, you get the sense there’s a dozen disappointments left unspoken. It’s this emotional range—Bad Gyal’s ability to shift from club-ready aggression to dysphoria—that renders “Nicest Cocky” such a promising omen for the young singer’s budding future.