CYKA
by Pussy Riot

From MadhattanJack 06/15/2026 22:23 | #314931 | TOP COMMENT

This album is a lot better musically than I expected. It's not entirely clear who the lead singer is on most tracks — people probably assume it's band founder and most-often-arrested leadership figure Nadya Tolokonnikova, though nobody is credited as such — but whoever it is, she has a fairly high-pitched, almost-squeaky waifish voice that's fairly well-suited for girlpop, only this is more like girlpunk with Russian-style melodies, with most of the lyrics also in Russian and relatively little screamo (or, rather, less than I would have expected). Sounds fine, though. There are also collaborations, of course: The single, "Candy Dopamine" (track 7) is backed by Avenged Sevenfold, while rapper B-Real appears on "Gore" (6) and relatively unknown singer Salem Ilese appears on "Utopia" (9), and President Vladimir Putin himself shows up for the title track (4), though his vocals, like his decisions, are rather weak. Long story short, this is a real album, with real songs, in case you were thinking it's just yet another example of Russians being unable to make music anymore.